eBay stalking scandal

The eBay stalking scandal was a campaign conducted in 2019 by the company behind the auction website eBay. It has resulted in seven indictments and two arrests. The scandal involved the aggressive stalking and harassment of two e-commerce bloggers, Ina and David Steiner, who wrote frequent commentary about eBay on their website EcommerceBytes.[1][2]

EBay stalking scandal
DurationLaunched in January 2019
MotiveDeter website authors who wrote negative material about EBay
TargetIna and David Steiner of ECommerceBytes
Arrests2
Charges7

EcommerceBytes

EcommerceBytes was founded in 1999, four years after eBay was founded. Initially called AuctionBytes, the website offered advice to buyers in the early days of internet commerce. In the years after its founding, the website became a resource for sellers on a number of platforms, from Etsy to Amazon, a kind of trade publication for anyone whose business is selling items online. The website not only offered advice, but also critiques of eBay's corporate and policy changes.

Stalking and harassment

In January 2019, Elliott Management purchased a significant investment in eBay. They sent a letter to its board of directors requesting changes, saying that eBay "as a public-company investment has underperformed both its peers and the market for a prolonged period of time." This was interpreted as placing additional demands on eBay management to produce results, leading to an atmosphere of heightened stress throughout the company.[3][1]

Members of eBay's executive leadership had long been bothered by the couple's posts. Under pressure in early 2019 to enhance performance, the company felt a new sense of urgency.

The Steiners were harassed and threatened both online and physically in their home by deliveries of such things as a bloody pig mask, live cockroaches and spiders, funeral wreath, and large orders of pizza. Pornographic magazines with David Steiner’s name on them were sent to a neighbor’s house.

Employees flew from California to Boston so they could vandalize the couple's Natick, Massachusetts home as well as stalk their personal vehicle. Plans were even made to break into the couple's garage and place a GPS tracker on their car.[1]

Charges filed
"This was a determined, systematic effort by senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick all because they published content that company executives didn’t like. For a while they succeeded, psychologically devastating these victims for weeks as they desperately tried to figure out what was going on and stop it."

Massachusetts US attorney, Andrew Lelling

In June 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice charged six former eBay employees and contractors with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses; a seventh former employee was charged in July.[4]

Two former employees were charged and arrested. They are:[1]

  • James Baugh of San Jose, California. He was eBay’s Senior Director of Safety & Security.
  • David Harville of New York City. He was eBay’s former Director of Global Resiliency.

Five former employees were charged but not arrested. Each of these individuals was charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. They will be required to make appearances in federal court in Boston. They are:[1]

  • Stephanie Popp of San Jose, California. She was formerly eBay’s Senior Manager of Global Intelligence.
  • Stephanie Stockwell of Redwood City, California. She was formerly the manager of eBay’s Global Intelligence Center (GIC).
  • Veronica Zea of San Jose, California. She had served as an eBay contractor working as an intelligence analyst in the GIC.
  • Brian Gilbert of San Jose, California. He had been a Senior Manager of Special Operations for eBay’s Global Security Team.
  • Philip Cooke of San Jose, California. He was charged in July 2020, in distinction to the others, who were all charged on June 15, 2020.[1] He was a supervisor of security operations. Cooke had formerly worked as a police captain in Santa Clara.[5]

References
  1. Streitfeld, David (2020-09-26). "Inside eBay's Cockroach Cult: The Ghastly Story of a Stalking Scandal". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  2. Barrett, Brian (2020-09-26). "Former eBay Execs Allegedly Made Life Hell for Critics". Wired. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  3. "Elliott Management Sends Letter to Board of Directors of eBay". BusinessWire. January 22, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  4. Herrera, Sebastian (2020-06-15). "Justice Department Charges Former eBay Staff With 'Cyberstalking Campaign'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  5. "Former eBay Staffer & Santa Clara Police Captain Charged With Harassing Newsletter Editor". CBS SF Bay. July 7, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.