6 Ebay Executives And Employees Charged With Aggressive Cyberstalking Campaign Against Massachusetts Couple
According to the DOJ, six former executives and employees of eBay have been charged with leading a cyberstalking campaign targeting a couple from Massachusetts that run an online blog covering ecommerce companies. The types of harassments included sending anonymous threatening messages, delivering live bugs, a bloody pig’s mask, a funeral wreath, and even going as far as conducting covert surveillance of the victims.
The couple in charge of the online blog published an article in 2019 about litigation involving eBay. The blog post that triggered the harassment seems to be about an eBay RICO lawsuit against Amazon. When two eBay executives got a hold of it, they sent text messages to their coworkers suggesting it was time to “take down” the blog’s editor.
In response, the coworkers went forward with executing their harassment campaign. Some of the disturbing things included delivering the victims a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, a funeral wreath, and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse. They also sent porn to the couple’s neighbors but addressed it to the blog’s publisher.
That was only the first part of the campaign. It gets worse. They continued the harassment campaign by sending private Twitter messages and public tweets threatening to visit the victims homes in Massachusetts. They also doxxed them by publishing their home address to the public. The group took it a step further by posting an ad on Craigslist that invited singles, swingers, and couples to go to the Massachusetts couple’s house for parties every night, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. Also, it’s alleged that the group was going to have a former police captain approach them with an offer to help stop the harassment only if they wrote more favorable coverage of eBay.
The third phase of this harassment campaign had the group conducting covert surveillance on the victims in their home and community. They even tried to install a GPS device on their car. In case the group got caught, they had a backup plan that included carrying with them fake documents that say they were there to investigate the victims as “Persons of Interest” who threatened eBay’s executives. Once the victims spotted the surveillance, they alerted their local police that kicked off an investigation.
The funny part is, the group tried to interfere with the investigation by pretending to offer their assistance. They even lied to their own eBay lawyers. They even tried to fabricate a second document that would lead to the police on some of the harassment deliveries. But once the investigation got deeper, police and eBay’s lawyers found that the group deleted evidence that further obstructed with the investigation which had already turned into a federal one.
Watch U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling’s press conference addressing the charges:
- Press release from the DOJ.
- EBay’s Statement Regarding Indictments.
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