Amazon Plants Fake Packages In Delivery Trucks As Part of Undercover Ploy To 'Trap' Drivers Stealing (businessinsider.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: Amazon uses fake packages to catch delivery drivers who are stealing, according to sources with knowledge of the practice. The company plants the packages -- internally referred to as "dummy" packages -- in the trucks of drivers at random. The dummy packages have fake labels and are often empty.

Here's how the practice works, according to the sources: During deliveries, drivers scan the labels of every package they deliver. When they scan a fake label on a dummy package, an error message will pop up. When this happens, drivers might call their supervisors to address the problem, or keep the package in their truck and return it to an Amazon warehouse at the end of their shift. Drivers, in theory, could also choose to steal the package. The error message means the package isn't detected in Amazon's system. As a result, it could go unnoticed if the package were to go missing. "If you bring the package back, you are innocent. If you don't, you're a thug," said Sid Shah, a former manager for DeliverOL, a courier company that delivers packages for Amazon.

Comments

now that everyone knows

[renegade600]

well, since the cat is out of the bag, only idiots will be caught.

Re:now that everyone knows

[farble1670]

well, since the cat is out of the bag, only idiots will be caught.

Not the point. Amazon doesn't care if you don't steal because you are honest or if you don't steal because you know you will get caught. They only care if you deliver your packages. It's much simpler to prevent crime than to punish it.

Re:now that everyone knows

[taustin]

I would suggest that they don't actually have to have every actually planted any fake packages, because 99.999% of the benefit of the whole idea is in the story that they do.

Why would you steal an empty package?

[SuperKendall]

It seems really odd that someone would steal a package so light you could basically tell it was empty. Maybe they think they are getting some kind of small electronics? At least put a brick in there Amazon.

Re:Entrapment?

[Tyr07]

It's not entrapment.

Your job is to deliver the package. They didn't do anything that suggests you should keep it instead. There is no reason to believe you can keep it just because there is an error scanning it. It's not yours. No one said it's fine to keep if the system has a problem with it.

It's a sealed box. Calling that entrapment would be like saying people parking their cars on streets sometimes get stolen, and putting a car alarm in them is baiting them to steal it for entrapment. At no point was it suggested or pushed that you should steal a car.t.

I'm reminded of

[rsilvergun]

this.

If you're wondering why this feels like entrapment even though legally it's not; it's because Amazon treats their workers badly enough (and keeps them financially desperate enough) that temping them with something so minor is enough to push them over the edge. Want people to stop risking their jobs and jail time for what's maybe a $20 package? Pay them enough to live.