Mr Gibbsen Omar, a senior lecturer at Republic Polytechnic’s School of Infocomm, noted that bots have a “much higher chance” of booking slots in bulk as human beings cannot compare with their speed.
“One thing that bots can do is web scraping – basically (they) access the content of the website and extract the relevant information,” he pointed out.
“They also make use of something called headless browsers – they can simulate real user activity without actually visiting the website itself, making the interaction quick and succinct.”
COMFORTDELGRO’S EFFORTS PAY OFF
ComfortDelGro Driving Centre told CNA that their efforts to tackle such bots have been successful so far, claiming that fewer people have used bots on their websites.
Apart from a strict three-month suspension for those caught using bots, ComfortDelGro Driving Centre hired a vendor to generate reports on users displaying bot-like activities.
It also began opening slots at various timings and putting in an AI algorithm to prevent learners from using bots. Those who sign up for lessons will have to perform a CAPTCHA authentication as well.
“In the end, everybody will have a fair chance to book their sessions,” said ComfortDelGro Driving Centre CEO Vincent Tan.
Bukit Batok Driving Centre and Singapore Safety Driving Centre declined to comment when contacted by CNA.