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Natick couple suing eBay after being harassed, stalked by former executives

NATICK, Mass. — The Natick couple who were harassed and stalked by former eBay executives is filing a lawsuit against the company.

In June 2020, federal investigators announced charges against six former eBay employees in connection with a cyberstalking campaign that targeted the Natick couple who criticized the company in a newsletter they published.

The FBI says the harassment included sending threatening messages, surveillance of the couple and packages sent to the couple that contained live cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig mask.

On Wednesday, the couple will be speaking for the first time since the incident to discuss the civil lawsuit just filed against eBay and its top officers.

According to the media release, the suit accused the online retailer giant of “orchestrating a systematic campaign to emotionally and psychologically torture the Steiners, the two-person team behind EcommerceBytes, a trade publication reporting on eBay. The suit accuses eBay of yielding its enormous power and corporate resources to terrorize and silence journalists.”

>> Read the full lawsuit here

The FBI charged James Baugh and David Harville in connection to the scheme. Other co-conspirators charged in the case are Stephanie Popp, Stephanie Stockwell, Veronica Zea and Brian Gilbert.

According to officials, the campaign began in August 2019 after the Natick couple published an issue of their newsletter containing an article about a lawsuit against eBay. That’s when, officials say, the company’s executive leadership team sent messages to each other saying it was time to “take down” the newsletter’s editor.

FBI investigators said the eBay team sent the couple a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse. Investigators say the group also ordered pornography addressed to the newsletter’s editor, but had it delivered to their neighbors.

The FBI said the executives also messaged the couple via Twitter private message and became increasingly threatening.

“What it going to take for you to answer me, guess I’m going to have to get your attention another way b****,” one of the messages said, according to the FBI.

A second part of the harassment, according to the FBI, was to send Brian Gilbert, a former Santa Clara police captain, to contact the couple and offer to help them stop the harassment. At that point, investigators say the eBay group was publishing personal information about the couple, which had been dug up in a process called doxing.

EBay’s security team registered for a software conference in Boston and then allegedly visited the defendant’s house under the guise of investigating them for threats made against eBay executives. Once the company learned for the investigation, the FBI said the participants conspired to lie to investigators about it.

Boston 25 News reached out to EBay for a response to the lawsuit, and we received a response on Wednesday.

“The misconduct of these former employees was wrong, and we will do what is fair and appropriate to try to address what the Steiners went through,” Trina Somera, of EBay corporate communications, said in a statement to Boston 25 News. “The events from 2019 should never have happened, and as eBay expressed to the Steiners, we are very sorry for what they endured.

As noted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office when this matter first came to light, eBay cooperated fully with the government’s investigation, noting that “eBay was extremely cooperative with the investigation in helping state and federal authorities figure out what had happened and collect evidence of the crime.”


This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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