In September, Amazon confirmed that one of the thousands of sellers on its platform bribed employees to delete negative reviews, and to leak information such as emails and sales history of other citizens. According to information, Amazon has fired at least one employee.
According to the Financial Times, the fired employee shared customer email addresses with an as-yet-unknown seller. Amazon confirmed the report, saying the employee is no longer with the company and that it is supporting authorities in prosecuting him. Customers whose addresses were leaked have already been notified, and the company confirms that no other customer information was leaked to third parties.
One of the affected customers shared the email he received from Amazon. The email states that the employee has been terminated and is banned from using the platform in the future, either as a buyer or seller. However, the company did not say who the seller was or what kind of items he was selling, which may be done later, once the investigation is complete.
The Wall Street Journal report revealed that sellers use intermediaries to identify Amazon employees. They then bribed them to pass on internal information, in order to «snatch» the customers of other sellers. Amazon stated that currently an audit is being conducted on what kind of data employees can see, and that a system will be implemented to limit the visibility of these sensitive data.
