Former eBay Security Chief Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison Over Cyber-Stalking

Philip Cooke is the last of seven former eBay employees to be charged for involvement in a harassment campaign against two bloggers (via The Register).

eBay Harassment Case

in 2020 seven eBay employees, including two executives, were charged with harassment, cyber-stalking, and witness tampering against Ina and David Steiner, who publish the web newsletter and website EcommerceBytes. According to the Department of Justice:

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.

In an attempt to silence the couple, these eBay employees sent them threatening text messages and mailed them things like live cockroaches, a preserved fetal pig, a funeral wreath, a Halloween mask of a bloodied pig, and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse.

Allegedly, the employees posted ads on Craigslist saying that the couple’s home was open for parties, threesomes, and BDSM activities.

In a statement to The Register, eBay said it “was notified by law enforcement in August 2019 of suspicious actions by its security personnel toward a blogger.”