eBay reaches $55.7 million settlement with couple that was sent spiders, bloody pig mask

eBay has agreed to pay $55.7 million in a settlement with a Massachusetts couple that was the victim of a bizarre harassment and cyberstalking campaign orchestrated by former employees of the company.Ina and David Steiner, who run the trade publication ECommerceBytes from their home in Natick, started receiving online threats and upsetting deliveries to their home in 2019, including a bloody pig mask, live spiders and a book on surviving the death of a spouse.Pornographic magazines addressed to David Steiner were purposefully sent to their neighbors, and their home was listed on Craigslist as a nightly destination for "singles, couples and swingers."ICYMI | Bride-to-be arrested after allegedly setting fire at LDS church day before weddingLaw enforcement was able to trace a rental van that followed David Steiner one day back to an eBay employee, and in 2020, the Department of Justice charged seven eBay executives and employees with cyberstalking. Whatever it takes," former chief communications officer Steve Wymer wrote.The Steiners told "60 Minutes" that they started sleeping in separate rooms so that if someone broke in at night, at least one of them could call police or escape."It felt like corporate terrorism because we were terrorized. It was very vicious," Ina Steiner said.The couple will receive $48.7 million in the settlement, including $2 million from Wenig.

eBay will give $6 million to various charities, and Wenig will also donate $1 million to a charity protecting First Amendment rights in Ina Steiner's name.eBay, which paid a $3 million criminal penalty in the case in 2024, said in a statement on Tuesday that "we continue to extend our deepest apologies to the Steiners."ICYMI | Singer D4vd must stand trial in killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez"As we have long stated, what the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened," eBay said. "We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, the employees who perpetrated and pled guilty to criminal char… The couple said the cyberstalking began with threatening direct messages on social media before turning into anonymous deliveries including live cockroaches and a funeral wreath.

The Steiners were sent things like cockroaches and a funeral wreath in the mail as part of a harassment campaign by former eBay employees.