An Amazon spokeswoman said in an interview with CNN that the company is conducting an investigation into allegations that some of its employees used their positions to sell confidential data on sales and the platform's users to third-party companies, as well as editing user reviews on certain items.
"We have zero tolerance for abuse of our systems and if we find bad actors who have engaged in this behavior, we will take swift action against them," she said.
The spokeswoman further noted that the punishment will not only touch employees, but also those sellers that used their services. Their punishment will include banning their accounts, deleting reviews and even legal actions for violating the platform's rules.
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Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that certain brokers in the Chinese city of Shenzhen had allegedly offered access to services provided by some of Amazon's employees. They could provide internal data on sales, email addresses of reviewers and even delete negative reviews and restore banned accounts. Their fees reportedly ranged from $80 to $2,000, depending on the service requested.