‘eBay’s Bizarre Cyberstalking Saga Ends With a $56 Million Settlement’

Emma Roth, The Verge: eBay and three former executives will pay $55.7 million as part of a settlement with a Massachusetts couple targeted with a bizarre harassment and cyberstalking campaign in 2019, as reported earlier by CNBC . The settlement will resolve a lengthy legal saga that revealed how eBay’s former executives sent live insects , a bloody pig mask, a funeral wreath, and other strange items to David and Ina Steiner over their newsletter’s coverage of eBay. The Steiners, who operate the EcommerceBytes newsletter, sued eBay and its former executives — including ex-CEO Devin Wenig — in 2021. The lawsuit accused the company and its executives of launching a coordinated effort to “intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence” the Steiners in an attempt to “stifle” their eBay-related reporting. I don’t think I’ve ever linked to this saga before, but I’m not sure why. One of those stories that slipped through cracks. It’s an astonishing tale. Could be the basis for Coen brothers movie. From David Streitfeld’s 2020 overview of the saga for The New York Times (gift link): Prosecutors say that on Aug. 7, Ms. Popp — the “Mom” to Mr. Baugh’s “Dad” — began sending Twitter messages to Ms. Steiner via a fake account, @Tui Elei. The profile picture was a skull, and he seemed to be an eBay user from Samoa who believed that EcommerceBytes had harmed his sales. Ms. Steiner ignored the messages, even as the tone got angrier and more abusive. @Tui Elei wrote: “I guess im goin to have to get ur attention another way bitch…”

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