Amazon reportedly plants fake packages as a trap for drivers

Amazon has an unsettling, if creative way to ensure drivers don’t steal.

According to sources who spoke to Business Insider, the company puts packages — which are often empty — with fake labels on the back of random trucks. 

When the driver scans the fake package for delivery, the scanner will show up with an error. When this occurs, the driver might call a supervisor to check, or keep the package on the truck to return to the warehouse. 

Drivers could choose to steal it, as Amazon’s system wouldn’t recognise the package, and therefore it wouldn’t register as missing if undelivered.

“It’s meant to be a trap … to check the integrity of the driver,” a former Amazon logistics manager told the outlet. 

Mashable has contacted Amazon for further comment, but in response to Business Insider’s story an Amazon spokesperson said, “Checks and audits are part of overall quality programs and are administered at random.”

Of course, anti-theft measures against workers, like bag-checking at the end of a shift, are common in the retail space, but this feels more like entrapment.

It comes as Amazon investigates suspected data leaks from bribed employees, who are giving information to independent sellers — via middlemen — to help them gain an advantage in the marketplace. These employees can also allegedly delete negative product reviews, for an additional fee. 

As for some of the more well-behaved Amazon employees, they’re being paid to defend the company on Twitter. 

That’s amid accusations of strict packaging targets for warehouse employees, with some workers claiming they have to pee in bottles and use other .