Wildberries said the online retailer’s security team had uncovered an illegal promotion scheme for some sellers on the platform. The damage can be about 650 million rubles. At the same time, the company’s databases were not hacked, the Wildberries press service told Business FM radio stations. Earlier, a number of Telegram channels reported that the retailer’s databases had been hacked and caused damage in the amount of 654.5 million rubles.
In total, about three hundred sellers used the services of gray promotion on the online platform, Valery Prokopyev, head of the Wildberries press service, said:
“This morning we woke up literally in a new reality. The three largest telegram channels Mash, Shot and Baza simultaneously reported that there were hacker attacks, the company’s database was hacked, company employees changed price tags from 100 thousand rubles to 100 rubles – and other conspiracy theories that these “super reliable” sources of information are famous for. No matter how ridiculous it may sound, but for the 100500th time we report that the information from the telegram channels is completely untrue. The company’s services operate in standard mode, the databases were not affected, no one changed the price tags, the meteorite did not fall to us either, everything is in perfect order. Representatives of the company did go to the police, but this is due to the investigation of the gray promotion on the online platform. The security service uncovered illegal ways to promote on the site using external services. We filed a complaint with law enforcement agencies to initiate a criminal case. According to preliminary data, the amount of damage is about 650 million rubles, the exact amount will be established by the investigation. About 300 sellers used gray promotion services on the platform, the attackers offered their services to them through a specially written telegram bot. Through it, sellers, using customized algorithms, used advertising services on the site, but did not pay for them, which caused significant damage to the company. Sellers who used fraudulent schemes will have to pay for the company’s services in full and answer questions from the investigating authorities.”
It is not yet clear exactly how the sellers were driving ads through third-party services, but the marketplace will definitely tighten its security policy, says Efim Aldukhov, CEO of the platform for sales growth on GoOmni marketplaces:
“It’s an incomprehensible story, because when promoting, an advance payment is required for Wildberries, you cannot launch an advertising campaign if there is no budget. It is not clear how, through which bot or through which mechanics it was necessary to set up an advertising campaign and not pay for it. Moreover, as a result of the promotion, this money must be withheld from current sales. It is not obvious how you can run advertising and not pay for it. There could be holes in these mechanisms that were discovered by unscrupulous suppliers – IT companies, but this is a non-standard situation, I think it should be quickly sorted out. I think they will reconfigure the work of advertising services with additional checks so that there are no such write-offs. Wildberries has seriously taken up the development of tools related to promotion on the site. Now this inventory is being processed, and sellers are being actively encouraged to use these tools. I hope that over the next few months, both new promotional tools for sailors will appear and the quality of existing ones will improve.”
The company reminded sellers on the online platform that using third-party services to promote products can lead not only to the loss of the right to manage personal accounts, but also to problems with law enforcement agencies.
