Back in mid-2020, a rather horrifying terror campaign by executives at eBay became news here in Boston. Husband and wife David and Ina Steiner run a site called EcommerceBytes, and apparently, some folks at eBay didn’t take to kindly to some of what the Steiner’s had written. Their reaction was monstrous:

A federal complaint alleges that eBay’s top security executive and several of his minions, dissatisfied with a Natick-based Web site’s eBay coverage, instead unleashed an online and in-person reign of terror that included sending the couple who run the site a bloody pig’s mask, live cockroaches and a funeral wreath, traveling to Natick to conduct surveillance of the couple and, when local police started inquiring, lying to them and then even to eBay’s lawyers about the stream of expletive-filled threatening Twitter messages they were sending the couple, according to a federal complaint unsealed today.

One of the more disturbing packages eBay employees sent to the couple was a book called “Grief Diaries: Loss of a Spouse”. This was later followed by a funeral wreath.

In the years since this first came to light, some measure of justice has been served. All involved were fired, with even eBay’s then-CEO losing his job. Many of the conspirators were also charged criminally, and the former “senior director of security and safety” James Baugh was sentenced to almost five years in prison.

Last week, eBay itself was charged with six criminal offenses, including stalking, witness tampering and obstruction. The company has been ordered to pay a a $3 million fine, and the reputational damage is surely much greater. This story is truly unhinged.