eBay fined $3M for insane harassment campaign against couple that included sending them live spiders

[nutella_forever]

EBay to pay $3M after employees sent live spiders, cockroaches to couple https://t.co/8z5NWoKDnM pic.twitter.com/MX2hDLmACP
- New York Post (@nypost) January 11, 2024

Couple David and Ina Steiner, who ran the online newsletter EcommerceBytes, had upset so much the eBay executives with their coverage that they launched a “petrifying” harassment

Comments

[peddlestools]

WHAT

i actually went against ONTD norms and read the whole fucking thing and WHAT

[nutella_forever]

I know it was a lot of text, but every detail is so insane that I did not want to leave anything out

[peddlestools]

that's why i had to keep reading!!!!

[anterrabre]

JFC, all of this over an article about a lawsuit? They deserve more than 3 million.

[umilicious]

The $3 million is a federal penalty. It’s not what goes to the victims. The agreement says that the DOJ won’t come after them, but it doesn’t protect them from a civil case brought by the defendants (if they decided to do that).

[anterrabre]

I see. Thanks for the clarification!

[insomniachobs]

I really hope they do because Jesus Christ. That wasn't some one off deranged person, it was a bunch of C-Level execs who recruited minions to join in. What the actual fuck

[nutella_forever]

I read this article and couldn't believe what I was reading, this is completely unhinged
Even more insane that it was because of a newsletter that no one has heard of

These are some of the items that they received:

As alleged, the extensive harassment campaign launched by these six @eBayemployees included sending embarrassing & disturbing deliveries to the Natick couple's home, including a bloody pig mask, sympathy wreath, a book on how to survive the loss of a spouse, & live insects. pic.twitter.com/U2d1fgsLJD
- FBI Boston (@FBIBoston) June 15, 2020

[funhouse]

the fuck?!

[warwarwar]

I don’t get it like there has to be more that happened than just the one blog post right?

[belle_chouette]

It wasn’t just one post, they didn’t like that the blog criticized the corporate and policy changes at eBay. Ina Steiner wrote a blog post in 2019 about how the ex CEO Denis Wenig made 157 times more than the average eBay worker. This was a bad look esp since a hedge fund had just bought stake in eBay and trashed management for underperforming.

They apparently also wanted to go after one specific user called Fidomaster that posted critical comments on Twitter and the EcommerceBytes blog about eBay.

From Wikipedia: "The stalking and harassment campaign was designed to intimidate EcommerceBytes into changing their coverage of eBay, culminating in the "White Knight Strategy" which enlisted Brian Gilbert to pretend to come to the Steiners' aid in his official eBay capacity as an attempt to win goodwill and gain their help in unmasking the person behind the Fidomaster/unsuckEBAY account"

Basically a bunch of American Psychos who would rather spend time and effort harassing their "haters" than actually running the company properly.

[5368f65]

This is just insane... 3m isn't even a lot for this. Vile.

[jearsinsears]

what the actual fuck