Shadow market promises insider Amazon access

In December, online merchant Jack Nekhala got in touch with Amazon.com Inc. with an urgent message.

- By SPENCER SOPER

Nekhala told an Amazon representative that a woman he didn’t know had contacted him with an intriguing offer: She could bribe an Amazon employee to help him retrieve $90,000 in funds that the e-commerce giant had frozen after suspending him over an alleged violation of review policy.

Hoping to ingratiate himself with the company and restart his business, Nekhala offered to provide evidence, including recorded conversations and screenshots, that he said proved Amazon personnel were peddling inside information and influence. The smoking gun, Nekhala told the representative: information about his seller account. Only certain Amazon employees are supposed to have access to such details, but Nekhala had received them from the woman on WeChat, the Chinese messaging app.

Nekhala’s experience, which he documented and shared with Bloomberg, provides a rare glimpse into an international black market that has been a persistent scourge of Amazon’s online store. On one side are sellers looking for a variety of favors: a competitive edge over their rivals, information on how to boost sales, a way to get themselves unsuspended. On the other are middlemen who lurk on message apps like Telegram, WeChat and WhatsApp offering access to people inside Amazon who can get things done for a price.

Typically, such offers surge during key moments on the retail calendar, including Amazon’s Prime Day sale and the holiday shopping season from Black Friday to Christmas.

It’s impossible to determine the scope of the illicit activity, but it’s an open secret among Amazon sellers and consultants, who are frequently approached on social-media platforms and messaging apps. “The message is always the same: ‘I’m going to show you screenshots to prove I have inside access,’” said Chris McCabe, a former Amazon employee who runs a seller consulting firm. “It starts with the internal notes. That’s the bait on the hook.”