Six former employees of eBay charged with leading a cyberstalking campaign against a couple they believed was critical of eBay in an online ecommerce newsletter
6 eBay Executives And Employees Charged With Sending Threats, Bloody Pig Mask To Natick Couple https://boston.cbslocal.com/ ... @lilsarg : Can't lie. Nothing brings me joy like seeing cyberstalking prosecuted. https://twitter.com/... U.S. Attorney MA / @dmanews1 : #BREAKING: USA #Lelling announced charges against 6 former employees of eBay in connection w/ a cyberstalking campaign that targeted a Natick, Mass. couple. The harassment allegedly included threatening messages, disturbing deliveries & covert surveillance https://www.justice.gov/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : Wow. ‘Senior Director of Safety & Security’ and a bunch of other execs. https://twitter.com/... @karlbode : After the grotesque harassment, the Ebay execs then pretend to “help” the couple to get Ebay some good press, THEN decide to spy on the newsletter publishers. Just layers upon layers of crazy. https://twitter.com/... @mythserene : This is the craziest shit I have ever seen. 6 eBay *executives* & employees stalked & terrorized a Natick couple because they criticized about eBay IN AN ONLINE NEWSLETTER. They sent them a dead pig! Cockroaches. I mean, people, WTH? https://boston.cbslocal.com/ ... Zack Whittaker / @zackwhittaker : Some days “WTF?!” doesn't cut it. “Six former executives and employees of eBay are facing federal charges are they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter.” https://boston.cbslocal.com/ ... See also Mediagazer
CBS Boston
Context & Ripple Effects
The federal charges announced by U.S. Attorney Lelling are the opening move in what became one of corporate America's most notorious harassment cases. Days later, eBay confirmed that ex-CEO Devin Wenig was the person who allegedly ordered the campaign — though he was not charged — and documents soon detailed how members of eBay's security team ran months of surveillance and threatening deliveries against the couple behind the ECommerceBytes newsletter.
The arc since then has run from prosecution to accountability: four ex-employees went on to plead guilty while two senior executives denied wrongdoing, and the victims sued eBay, its former CEO, and others — a fight that ended with eBay and former executives agreeing to pay nearly $56 million in a civil settlement.
First-order effects
Six former eBay employees now face federal prosecution for threats, disturbing deliveries, and covert surveillance aimed at critics of the company, putting eBay's security operation under direct legal scrutiny.
eBay is immediately exposed as the named employer behind the campaign, with the victims' criticism published in an ecommerce newsletter now tied to alleged conduct ordered from inside the executive ranks.
Second-order effects
Once eBay confirmed Wenig as the alleged orderer without charging him, pressure shifted to the senior executives above the charged employees — pressure that later produced guilty pleas from four subordinates and denials from two executives.
The case forced eBay into financial accountability beyond the criminal process, culminating in the nearly $56 million civil settlement with former executives sharing the cost.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, corporate security teams become a litigation surface for companies: harassment traced to internal orders converts a PR problem into criminal liability for staff and civil liability for the C-suite, as eBay's own lawsuit-and-settlement sequence shows.
The case sets a template for how platforms respond to organized critic harassment — prosecution of operatives, executive-level civil settlements, and public documentation of the campaign rather than quiet dismissal.
The trend: Corporate cyberstalking cases are moving from isolated employee misconduct toward full-chain accountability, where the executives who order campaigns share financial and reputational liability with those who execute them.
Yikes. The affidavit reveals more of the text exchanges between the two former eBay executives, including comments like “We are going to crush this lady” and a threat that the WSJ “is next on the list” https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.co m/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Just so everyone is clear. eBay hired a former police captain as its head of global security. He then cyberstalked a journalist as revenge for publishing criticism of eBay. If you think hiring someone with experience in law enforcement will help your stock price, think again. htt…
so it sure looks like eBay's ex-CEO left after making an ambiguously threatening directive that led a team of employees to start mailing *live cockroaches and a bloody pig mask* to a newsletter editor he hated https://www.theverge.com/...
And here's Ebay's statement, which references an internal board investigation that found then-CEO Devin Wenig had some “inappropriate” communications (???) but did not know about or authorize what's alleged in the complaint: https://www.ebayinc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
EBay executives - executives! - harassed a couple who criticized the company. The execs sent the couple a bloody pig mask, live cockroaches and a funeral wreath. h/t @harrymccracken https://boston.cbslocal.com/ ...
Pro tip to corporate comm. teams/senior executives: Don't cyberstalk journalists and newsletters with live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a bloody pig mask and attempted GPS car tracking surveillance. May be over the line and lead to some bad consequences https://www.justice.gov/…
This is a developing story that we're updating on the alleged scheme by former eBay security personnel to spy on and intimidate two online publishers and THEN to pretend they were investigating the harassment which was part of a “white knight” strategy. https://www.nbcnews.com/..…
Prosecutors say that four of the former eBay staffers drove to the victims' home in Natick, MA several times and had planned on breaking into the victims' garage to install a GPS tracking device on their car. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
“Innocent until proven guilty” of course, but I'd like to emphasize that none of the activity alleged in this document has ANYTHING to do with security, “intelligence” or “threat intelligence” work. It's pure criminality and utterly disgusting. https://twitter.com/...
It gets even crazier! The Ebay employees' alleged plan was to harass the couple for months and later “proclaim that eBay noticed the harassment and offer to help them get out of” it. More from @Tom_Winter. https://www.nbcnews.com/... https://twitter.com/...
This is crazy if true. Justice Dept. says six former eBay employees charged with cyberstalking couple that ran newsletter critical of eBay. https://www.justice.gov/... Sad to say I've experienced a few of these dirty tricks myself (though not from eBay). https://twitter.com/...
eBay says it fired its former chief communications officer after it investigated the alleged cyberstalking campaign, and acknowledges that its chief executive, Devin Wenig, had “inappropriate” communications about the bloggers https://www.ebayinc.com/...
This isn't the half of it. This couple was harassed by six eBay employees, receiving all of this stuff, for... writing an email newsletter that was *sometimes* critical of eBay. https://boston.cbslocal.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Exec 1 appears to eBay's former CEO, Devin Wenig, quoted here telling his chief communications officer “If you are ever going to take her down..now is the time” https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.co m/ ... https://twitter.com/...
This affidavit is just stunning. (Exec 2 appears to be the former eBay CCO, allegedly texting here with the company's former senior director of safety and security.) https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.co m/ ... https://twitter.com/...
To scare the shit out of the company's enemies, eBay sent critics a fetal pig, funeral shrouds and a book on surviving the death of a spouse, says DoJ. Please please please if you know about tech companies hiring ex-spooks to do this fucked up shit msg me https://www.justice.gov/…
ebay statement: https://www.ebayinc.com/... Kind of speaks to your corporate culture that you have six high level execs that A. thought this was a good idea and B. never ran up against any institutional guardrails or oversight until after the fact.
The weirdest thing you'll read today: The eBay employees (incl. heads of intelligence) “allegedly posted a classified ad on Craigslist claiming to be from the couple inviting ‘singles, couples and swingers’ to their house to party after 10pm every night” https://boston.cbslocal.c…
This is the most insane story I've read in a while — 6 eBay Executives And Employees Charged With Sending Threats, Bloody Pig Mask To Natick Couple https://boston.cbslocal.com/ ...
#BREAKING: USA #Lelling announced charges against 6 former employees of eBay in connection w/ a cyberstalking campaign that targeted a Natick, Mass. couple. The harassment allegedly included threatening messages, disturbing deliveries & covert surveillance https://www.justice.gov…
After the grotesque harassment, the Ebay execs then pretend to “help” the couple to get Ebay some good press, THEN decide to spy on the newsletter publishers. Just layers upon layers of crazy. https://twitter.com/...
This is the craziest shit I have ever seen. 6 eBay *executives* & employees stalked & terrorized a Natick couple because they criticized about eBay IN AN ONLINE NEWSLETTER. They sent them a dead pig! Cockroaches. I mean, people, WTH? https://boston.cbslocal.com/ ...
Some days “WTF?!” doesn't cut it. “Six former executives and employees of eBay are facing federal charges are they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter.” https://boston.cbslocal.…