eBay and three former executives agreed to pay nearly $56 million in a settlement over a macabre campaign of cyberstalking and harassment that targeted two journalists in 2019.
As we’ve previously written, the case involved deliveries of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath, a book about surviving the loss of a spouse, and a bloody pig mask to the home of a couple who run a news website. There were also harassing messages sent via email and Twitter, and an attempt to install a GPS tracking device on the victims’ car. Criminal charges resulted in guilty pleas and prison terms for former eBay employees.
Weird that there’s no mention of what these people reported on that got them to receive said threats.
The harassment was allegedly spurred in part by an April 2019 article titled, “eBay CEO Devin Wenig Earns 152 Times That of Employees.” An FBI affidavit included messages exchanged between Wenig and Wymer about that article and other coverage of eBay by EcommerceBytes. Wenig, identified in the affidavit as “Executive 1,” told Wymer to “take her down,” in reference to Ina Steiner.
Is … Is that it? They reported information from eBay’s public filing with the SEC, therefore eBay needed to take them down? What petty trash.
It does near the end:
The harassment was allegedly spurred in part by an April 2019 article titled, “eBay CEO Devin Wenig Earns 152 Times That of Employees.”
This is class warfare. The wealthy thought they could get away with targeted harassment just because they’re used to getting their way, and they know there’s two tiers of justice.
I’m glad the journalists won, as they should have, but there is an ever-growing list of regular people who didn’t.
Note that this happened in 2019 and is only finally seeing justice now. My own legal battle cost around $25,000 per year. That’s not something most people would be able to afford for 7 years straight.
I knew the guy that produced the Meatloaf album, signed a distribution deal with SONY, then spent 20 years suing them to get his money.
He finally won, SONY settled, and I saw him less than a week later. I asked him how much he got, of course, and he couldn’t tell me, but said that it was “More money than I ever thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
Then I asked him if it was worth it, and he said it was, but it was still a hard road: “I got divorced, went bankrupt twice, became an alcoholic a few times, and constantly wondered if it was all worth it, but I finally won.”
He seemed pleased at his win, but not celebratory. I think he was happier that it was finally over, and he had something substantial to show for it.
So he got his credits on the album, and a LOT of money, but within a couple of years, he was back to suing SONY, because they STILL weren’t sending him his royalties.
I once knew someone at SONY, and I tapped him for a contact for a friend I knew with a great band, and he said “If this guy is truly your friend, don’t let him sign with SONY. We’ve got two floors of lawyers whose entire job is to fuck people over.”
Damn, that sucks. But yeah, legal battles are so exhausting that even when you win you just feel tired.
My legal fight is paid for entirely by my government, which is great because it’s their fault I’m in it
And there are two tiers, most of them didn’t even get charged with criminal charges.
Ooh, Casefile did a great podcast ep on this. Episode 306. (If you’re not familiar, Casefile is the gold standard for true crime. It’s not exploitative or voyeuristic. Just stories of notable crimes and their investigations, with plenty of awful police work and miscarriages of justice.)
This seems so out of place with Casey’s normal material. My wife was a big, big fan for a long time, everything seemed murdery to an outsider like me. The first one she showed me ended up being one guy one hammer, and lemme tell you, it was almost cathartic to know that that video I had watched a decade prior at least ended with them being caught.
That’s the one episode I haven’t been able to listen to. The video was so traumatic as a young kid. Haunting.
Behind the Bastards too
Good. Barabra Streisand effect:
https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2019/4/1554870735.html
I would’ve never got to this article if it wasn’t for these weirdos.
It kind of goes to show the type of person who is ok profiting off this sort of inequality
If eBay, Amazon and Facebook are all cesspits, where can you buy stuff online in a decent way? Search small shops individually?
Huh, maybe we need a fedishop network that is non profit and works for the interests of customers. Well and sellers, but not for profit for itself.
Definitely
small/medium shops have worked for me for the most part, only time I’ve had to use amazon in the last 10 years was for a replacement screen for a phone.
tho i dont live in america so have no idea if there is enough small stores to buy stuff from but i guess one should at least try buy from those whenever possible
I’m kinda curious about the stooges who did these things. Who would be stupid enough to commit crimes on behalf of a company? Did they seriously expect the company to go to bat for them if things went bad? They must have been drinking a LOT of eBay Kool Aid.
Behind the Bastards did two episodes on this one if you really want to learn more. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-that-time-ebays-private-211963285/
And a documentary called Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal
great podcast!
Swindled did too https://pca.st/episode/40fcefc5-c541-4e00-be64-7e6f624bd4b1
What the hell happened to eBay? As an internet startup they were pretty committed to doing the right thing even if it cost more. I get that was the silicon valley of the 90s, and probably before corporate pressure to maximize profits and share prices.
I think it’s just been easy to ignore how evil they are.
They’ve been tightly linked with Peter Thiel since they took over PayPal which has constantly stolen people’s money. It’s just harder for an auction house like eBay to be obviously evil.
Back in the early 2000s, I had a pretty good eBay biz started, but I had to quit it because between eBay and PayPal, I couldn’t get any traction. They were constantly suspending my account for a few days, or a week, or a month. I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and I could never get a straight answer on why, because EVERYTHING was automated, with canned email answers to every question, that didn’t explain anything.
Near as I could tell, a competitor must have been complaining that my listings were counterfeit or bootleg or something, which wasn’t the case. I could be wrong, I really have no idea why they were targeting me.
There is also a LOT of buyer fraud, and eBay offered NO protection for sellers. We lost EVERY dispute, so fraudsters were rampant. There were certain countries I refused to ship to, because every shipment was disputed, and their money would be refunded, and I was out the item, which were all unique, collectible, one-of-a-kind, expensive items.
I was also reading a lot of stuff about people having their money accounts confiscated by eBay, or locked up for months. I didn’t keep much money there, I always swept it out whenever possible, but I knew it was a matter of time before they stole my actual money, too.
On three different occasions they completely deleted my entire shop, with virtually no explanation, and I had to relist everything from scratch. The last time they did it, I just quit. I had already started another biz, because I couldn’t count on eBay, so I just concentrated on that, and I’m still doing it, 18 years later.
I won’t do biz with eBay or PayPal.
eBay? Wtf is eBay…
…oh, you mean scamBay!
