How we’re helping delivery partners schedule work by removing bots

Amazon Flex is designed to help you find delivery blocks as a way to earn extra money on your schedule. We recognize that this gets harder when bots and automated tools are used to grab Amazon Flex blocks.

We care deeply about Amazon Flex delivery partners and are committed to providing you with the best possible experience when looking for earning opportunities. Bots undermine this and create an unfair environment for some delivery partners. In addition, using a bot can create privacy and security risks especially when bot users share account credentials with a third party. This year we have significantly increased our efforts to prevent bots and automated tools from signing up for blocks on the Amazon Flex app, and we are committed to continuing to invest in this space. We are excited to share details of the actions we’ve taken and the results we have seen. We hope you have noticed the positive impact of our efforts.

So far, we have taken four actions. First, we have implemented advanced machine learning techniques to identify accounts that use bots. Once identified, we notify the account owner that we have detected bot usage that violates our Terms of Service and ask them to stop. In instances of repeated usage, we offboard these accounts from Amazon Flex, and we have done so for thousands of accounts. Second, we added short puzzles called CAPTCHAs. These appear to delivery partners in the offer acceptance screen in the Amazon Flex app if we detect bot-like behavior. Once a delivery partner confirms that they’re a real person by solving the CAPTCHA, they can continue with Amazon Flex as usual. If you’re using the Amazon Flex app as intended, our goal is that you will rarely see these CAPTCHAs.

Third, we launched technology to confirm that a mobile phone using the Amazon Flex app is accessing our backend systems. For cases where we suspect a bot is being used, we block the request. Finally, we’ve taken legal action against companies that provide bot services, and we’ll continue to do so. In addition to creating an unfair environment, these companies request your Amazon Flex credentials to get blocks on your behalf, which poses a risk to your privacy and security. Delivery partners should never share their Amazon credentials, in any form, with third parties.

As a result of our efforts, in the past month alone we have identified and stopped nearly 10 million attempts from bots to schedule blocks. This helps delivery partners get more of the blocks they want. We will continue to invest in improving your Amazon Flex experience and creating a fair and level playing field for all delivery partners.

Thank you for delivering with Amazon Flex.