eBay Paying Couple $50 Million After Employees Mailed Them Live Insects and Other Bizarre Stuff

That one time I got scammed by an eBay seller who sent me a random, unidentifiable piece of electronic equipment when I was trying to buy a backup camera battery doesn’t seem so bad now.

According to NBC News, eBay has agreed to pay nearly $50 million to a Massachusetts couple who said former company employees mailed them a bloody pig Halloween mask, live cockroaches, and a variety of rather creative ways to get to the point of a death threat across without actually making a death threat.

David and Ina Steiner are the founders of the e-commerce newsletter called EcommerceBytes. The goings-on of eBay were a part of their beat. According to their lawsuit, some company employees responded to that journalism with the mad mailings of a crazy ex.

The harassment allegedly started with threatening messages online, and then quickly and terrifyingly escalated. Anonymous deliveries of live insects and spiders, a book about surviving the death of a spouse, porn magazines that were sent not to the Steiners but to their neighbors in David Steiner’s name, and it was found that the employees had plans to install a GPS device on the couple’s car.

eBay Agreed to Pay Nearly $50 Million Over a Bizarre Cyberstalking Campaign

In 2020, seven former eBay employees were charged in what authorities described as a coordinated cyberstalking campaign intended to intimidate the couple over their reporting. Most pleaded guilty and received prison sentences or home confinement. eBay itself later paid a $3 million criminal penalty under a deferred prosecution agreement.

And now comes the big, chunky civil settlement. The Steiners will receive $48.7 million, including more than $46 million from eBay itself, with former eBay executives personally contributing to the pot, seemingly as a way of saying sorry for all that harassment. Another $7 million will be donated to charities, including organizations supporting First Amendment rights.

There are no confidentiality clauses in the agreement, meaning the Steiners can speak freely about the whole nightmare.