Six people in Washington state have been accused of bribing Amazon employees to manipulate a list of third-party vendors on an e-commerce site, including a list of defective or dangerous products, officials said.
Beginning in 2017, the market paid more than Market 100,000 to people including two former employees of Amazon, including a list of products and accounts that have blocked or suspended Amazon from its Marketplace, allowing third-party sellers to promote and sell their products. Said the judge. The former employees also provided insider information to Amazon, which allowed attacks on other third-party sellers and their accounts, including flooding the sellers’ product listings with fake negative reviews, officials said.
According to officials, the defendants accessed contact information for Amazon employees and customers, which they shared extensively. Three of them were in New York, one in Georgia, one in California and one in India.
“They are feeling that they will not be able to take part in the level playing field. These issues have turned to bribery and fraud to get the upper hand. Same thing, not only have they tried to increase sales of their own products, And tried to defame, “said Raymond Duda, MBI’s special agent in Seattle, in a statement.
The restored product list includes dietary supplements that were removed for safety complaints, household electronics that were flagged as flammable, products removed for intellectual property violations, as well as other items. Some of the restored accounts were suspended for posting deceptive product reviews, while others were removed for “improper contact with customers” as well as other violations of Amazon’s policies.
“Amazon has systems in place to detect suspicious behavior by sellers or employees, and teams are in place to investigate and prevent prohibited activity,” the company said in a statement. “We are particularly disappointed with the actions of this limited group of former employees today, and appreciate the cooperation and support of law enforcement in bringing them and the bad actors bound for justice.”
Amazon’s ongoing feud with third-party sellers and its marketplace came to light this summer, with lawmakers questioning CEO Jeff Bezos during a no-confidence hearing before the House Judiciary Committee over fake concerns, and the retailer’s alleged competitive behavior. The company has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once.
Analysts estimate that third-party sellers made about half of the sales on the site. A third-party seller appears in the usual Amazon listings, to show that the line of text is not Amazon itself the actual seller.
Six Washington State defendants face charges of wiretapping, bribery and unauthorized access to secure computer systems. Wire fraud charges carry a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years.
