Crime & Safety

MA Couple At Center Of eBay Stalking Scandal Featured On “60 Minutes”

The segment, filmed with Ina and David Steiner in Natick, focused on the cyber harassment campaign against the couple by eBay employees.

Charges were filed against members of the company for harassing the Steiners, who operate the ecommerce newsletter Ecommercebytes. The newsletter was critical of eBay, which prosecutors said miffed the company executives and others, leading to this plot. (Shutterstock)

NATICK, MA — The Natick couple at the center of the eBay stalking scandal are the subject of a recent “60 Minutes” segment.

David and Ina Steiner founded the ecommerce newsletter Ecommercebytes. Their criticism of eBay found them targeted by the company.

The interview segment was filmed in Natick, Mass. Watch the full segment here.

In total, seven people were charged for the plot, including two company executives.

The charges were filed against members of the company for harassing the Steiners, who operate the ecommerce newsletter Ecommercebytes. The newsletter was critical of eBay, which prosecutors said miffed the company executives and others, leading to this plot.

“It is alleged that in August 2019, after the newsletter published an article about litigation involving eBay, two members of eBay’s executive leadership team sent or forwarded text messages suggesting that it was time to ‘take down’ the newsletter’s editor,” federal prosecutors said when six employees were indicted in June 2020.

The scheme involved “anonymous and profane demands that the couple stop reporting about eBay; the publication of their home address on Twitter and threats to visit them there; the delivery of live insects and a funeral wreath; Craigslist posts inviting all comers to sexual encounters at their home; a black van that followed the husband as he drove around Natick, and so much more,” federal prosecutors said in court documents.

James Baugh, of San Jose, Calif., eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety & Security, was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and a $40,000 fine; David Harville, of New York City, eBay’s former Director of Global Resiliency, was sentenced to two years in federal prison and a $20,000 fine.

Baugh and Harville are said to have organized the plot.

Read more: Two Former eBay Execs Sentenced In Natick Couple’s Harassment

Stephanie Popp, 34, of Louisville, Ky., was sentenced to a year and one day in prison, plus two years of probation. Stephanie Stockwell, 28, of Redwood City, Calif., was sentenced to a year of home confinement.

According to prosecutors, both women had a hand in harassing the newsletter publishers.
Stockwell sent live spiders and pizza deliveries to the Steiner’s home, plus other deliveries like a fetal pig and a book about how to cope with the death of a spouse, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, Popp used Twitter to criticize the couple, and posted an ad on Craigslist “inviting members of the public to experience sexual encounters at the victims’ home,” prosecutors said.

Read more: Two More Former eBay Employees Sentenced In Natick Cyberstalking Case

Another former eBay employee, Philip Cooke, was sentenced in July 2021 to 1-1/2 years in federal prison on a cyberstalking charge.

On top of the criminal charges, David and Ina Steiner have filed a federal lawsuit against eBay, saying the company engaged in a conspiracy to “intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them” in order to “stifle their reporting on eBay.”

With reporting from Neal McNamara.

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