How we are helping delivery partners schedule blocks by removing bots

Amazon Flex is designed to help you find and complete delivery blocks as a way to earn extra money on your schedule. We recognise 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 delivery partners. In addition, using a bot can create privacy and security risks especially when bot users share account credentials with a third party. 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 pleased 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.

First, 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. Second, we have implemented advanced machine learning techniques to identify accounts that are potentially using 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. Third, we launched technology to confirm whether a mobile phone using the Amazon Flex app is accessing our backend systems. For cases where we have high confidence that a bot is being used, we block the request. We also recommend that delivery partners never share their Amazon credentials with third parties, which poses a risk to their privacy and security.

As a result of our efforts, we have identified and stopped millions of attempts from bots to schedule blocks. This helps delivery partners get more of the blocks they want. In instances of repeated usage, we offboard these accounts from Amazon Flex, and we have done so for thousands of accounts. 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.