They Got DESTROYED // The eBay Stalking Scandal
5/9/20269 min
The eBay stalking scandal was a bizarre and criminal harassment campaign orchestrated in 2019 by company employees against Ina and David Steiner, authors of the newsletter EcommerceBytes, in retaliation for their critical reporting. Led by eBay’s security team, the harassment included sending terrifying packages—such as a bloody pig mask, live insects, and a funeral wreath—to the couple’s home, alongside physical surveillance and public Craigslist posts inviting strangers to their property.
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRay William Johnson· Host0:00
Imagine you criticize a billion-dollar company online, and then they retaliate by stalking you. Now, this all starts with this woman, Ina. And Ina's around 60 years old, living in Massachusetts with her husband, this guy, David. And Ina and David, they run a website out of their home, where Ina basically blogs about online shopping platforms like eBay and Etsy and Amazon, platforms like that. And one day in 2019, Ina writes a blog post that changes their lives forever. She writes about the CEO of eBay, and she says that this guy gets paid, like, $18 million a year, which is 152 times what regular employees at eBay make. And so thousands of people regularly read her blog, and they leave comments like, "That guy makes way too much," and, "What an overpaid empty suit," and, "First." But here's the thing. The comms director of eBay, he happens to see this article, and he shares it around the company. And that is when the CEO of eBay himself sees it. And he gets super pissed, 'cause, you know, they're talking about him. And he decides he's gonna retaliate. And so he texts the comms director, "Take her down." And the comms director texts back, "We're gonna crush this lady. I wanna see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes." And so a revenge plot begins against an elderly couple who have