eBay agreed to pay maximal possible fine of $3 million after employees harassed, intimidated, and stalked a Massachusetts couple in retaliation for their critical reporting of the online marketplace

floofloof, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

eBay’s harassment campaign against the couple, David and Ina Steiner, stretched for 18 days in August 2019 and was led by the company’s former senior director of safety and security, Jim Baugh. It started when then-CEO Devin Wenig and then-chief communications officer Steven Wymer decided to “take down” the Steiners after growing frustrated with their coverage of eBay in a newsletter called EcommerceBytes.

Executing the “take down,” Baugh and six co-conspirators “put the victims through pure hell,” acting US attorney Joshua S. Levy wrote in the DOJ’s press release.

The former eBay employees turned the Steiners’ world “upside-down through a never-ending nightmare of menacing and criminal acts,” Levy said. That included “sending anonymous and disturbing deliveries,” such as “a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig and a funeral wreath and live insects,” the DOJ said. The intimidation also included publishing a series of “Craigslist posts inviting the public for sexual encounters at the victims’ home.”

But the intimidation did not stop there. After sending tweets and DMs threatening to visit the couple’s home, former eBay employees escalated the criminal activity by traveling to Massachusetts and installing a GPS tracker on the Steiners’ car. Spotting their stalkers, the Steiners called local police, who coordinated with the FBI to investigate what Levy called an “unprecedented stalking campaign” fueled by eBay’s toxic corporate culture.

Damn. And there I was shopping at eBay because I imagined it was a little better than Amazon. What is wrong with these people? How can a person end up doing that just for the sake of the company they work for? Is it just about money? I guess with the CEO’s involvement it’s probably the usual combination of greed, arrogance and lust for power. But despite instigating the “takedown”, it seems the former CEO isn’t among those being punished.

t3rmit3, 4 months ago

Something I see working in infosec is that there are some people who get into it for the power, thinking they’re basically cops. This being run by their Director of Safety and Security reeks of that kind of cop-mindset.

jarfil, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

Very close, although it seems like in this case it was the other way around:

Cooke worked in eBay’s security division after retiring from the Santa Clara Police Department.

Ex-cop, went into “private security” to keep copping around, not exactly infosec.

billothekid2, 4 months ago

Holy shit! Does eBay think they're the Mafia now? I can't help but think of the horse head in The Godfather.

Kaldo, 4 months ago

Someone must have signed off on this and thst person should have gotten jail time IMHO.

floofloof, 4 months ago

It may have been a “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” kind of deal.

deegeese, 4 months ago

If the defendant agreed to the maximum penalty, that tells you they’re being let off easy.

Criminal acts by companies should include fines large enough to make the shareholders mad, or else there was no real punishment.

frog, 4 months ago

Criminal acts by companies should include fines large enough to make the shareholders mad, or else there was no real punishment.

All of their profits earned for each day when the harassment occurred sounds like a reasonably large fine. I don’t know how much profit eBay made in the 18 days their employees harassed these people, but I bet it was a lot more than $3 million.

Lionir, 4 months ago

I remember hearing this story a long time ago, It’s still so shocking that this happened.