[HN Gopher] Ex-eBay exec pleads guilty to harassing Ina and Davi...
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Ex-eBay exec pleads guilty to harassing Ina and David Steiner
Author : danso
Score : 145 points
Date : 2022-05-13 11:43 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| arminiusreturns wrote:
| I have a manager that used to work at eBay that is literally the
| worst manager I've ever had in my life. I wonder if there was a
| certain culture there?
| encryptluks2 wrote:
| Sounds like it. Toxic management trinkles all the way down
| throughout the company.
| wyldfire wrote:
| > orchestrated by members of eBay's executive leadership team
| after the newsletter published an article about a lawsuit filed
| by eBay accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers, authorities
| said.
|
| Is this kinda thing covered in the meeting minutes? "I move that
| we send death threats to the couple." "Seconded!" "ok, all in
| favor?" "Aye!" "motion approved. ok, now on to 'new business'..."
| bowsamic wrote:
| It sounds like it was highly organised to me
| password4321 wrote:
| Previous discussions:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31162492 20220424: 11
| comments
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31087766 20220419: 2
| comments
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30712531 20220317: 7
| comments
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29448672 20211205: 25
| comments
|
| > _It 's basically "Big Corporate Giant Hires Paramilitary Firm
| to Terrorize Private Citizens"._
| swarnie wrote:
| This does make me wonder if this is completely isolated and just
| a few bad apples or something more widespread. I know of a few
| other complaints of harassment from security at big tech
| companies which i initially dismissed because they come across as
| almost fantasy.
|
| Considering the complete psychos we're dealing with here its
| lucky Devin Wenig's message of "Take her down," wasn't
| interpreted differently.
| wgerard wrote:
| This whole story is wild to me, having worked previously at a
| different company which was also a frequent target of criticism
| on the blog run by the victims.
|
| Sure, we definitely used to eye-roll at some articles. But my ass
| would've been fired in 5 seconds for even sending them an email,
| let alone anything beyond that.
| aeturnum wrote:
| I genuinely do not understand these kinds of situations. Like,
| I've been at companies where we have well know critics and
| like...we know what they say and if they suffer a misfortune
| people might think that's funny - but we're working on the thing
| we are working on! I just can't imagine my boss coming to me and
| telling me to setup an "op" on one of our well-known-angry-in-
| public-customers.
|
| I say "these kinds of situations" because, ofc, this thing seems
| to come up regularly? I remember the Uber exec who stalked a
| woman who was assaulted (raped?) by a driver. People in the tech
| industry seem weirdly enabling of petty hateful stalker behavior.
| bluefirebrand wrote:
| > People in the tech industry seem weirdly enabling of petty
| hateful stalker behavior
|
| I wonder if it's because it's become so normalized to collect
| so much personal data all the time. Arguably a lot of us are
| enabling our companies to spy on people constantly, so it's not
| a stretch to imagine people are ok with weird stalker behavior.
| user3939382 wrote:
| There's a really good This American Life episode about people
| like this called Petty Tyrant
| https://www.thisamericanlife.org/419/petty-tyrant
|
| This guy is a school maintenance manager that psychologically
| tortures all his employees and puts explosives on their cars.
| unityByFreedom wrote:
| eBay exec seems like another level. Does the episode have
| examples of people throwing away their c-suite jobs?
| aaaaaaaaata wrote:
| No, just bombs!
| aaaaaaaaata wrote:
| Executive worship, here..?
| hivemindrot wrote:
| veltas wrote:
| This is really an outrageous, unethical, disproportionate
| response to a negative article, what kind of psychos are working
| at eBay?
| newsclues wrote:
| I think this kind of psycho is the norm in the upper echelon of
| government and business.
|
| We shouldn't think it is only eBay that is rotten.
| FredPret wrote:
| If this was the norm, society would have collapsed long ago
| newsclues wrote:
| I think the length of time it has taken for our society to
| collapse is a testament to the quality of civilization we
| destroyed (are destroying).
| FredPret wrote:
| What collapse? Information and science is being
| preserved; trust is so high that we're all willing to
| accept numbers in a database as being money; kids are
| being educated now much better than I was.
| unityByFreedom wrote:
| It seems as simplistic to say it's the norm as it is to say
| it's an isolated case.
|
| Why not just prosecute where there is evidence of wrongdoing.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| None of the perpetrators of the 1985 bombing in
| Philadelphia - committed by police - ever got hauled in
| front of a court [1]. Abuse of power _rarely_ gets punished
| if you are high enough in the chain.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing
| the_only_law wrote:
| Richard Helms destroyed documents regarding the CIA and
| their work in torturing US citizens and died and free
| man.
| DaiPlusPlus wrote:
| > what kind of psychos are working at eBay?
|
| People who presumably got rejected by Amazon for being too evil
| even for them...
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| I thought they go to Oracle :)
| thg wrote:
| Only if they're lawyers
| Broken_Hippo wrote:
| The same sort that are peppered throughout society. Working at
| eBay just meant they likely had access to more funds than the
| folks that stalk people and call the new jobs to harass them or
| get them fired.
| ciabattabread wrote:
| The same ones that work at Salesforce. [1]
|
| (The former CEO was either blind to the activities of his
| direct reports, condoned their actions, or actively
| participated in criminal behavior. All are disqualifying
| offenses.)
|
| [1] https://www.salesforce.com/company/leadership/bios/bio-
| wenig...
| nullc wrote:
| What do you expect from a company that runs a superbowl
| commercial that attacks space exploration, for no apparent
| reason or connection with their company?
| pfortuny wrote:
| The same as elsewhere. The fact that he is an eBay employee is
| irrelevant.
| usrn wrote:
| Ebay seems like a unique company. I don't know if they still
| do this but at one point they were using web sockets to port
| scan customers networks.
| [deleted]
| VyseofArcadia wrote:
| > Wenig was not criminally charged, has denied any knowledge of
| the harassment campaign, and his lawyers have asked that the
| Steiners' claims against him be dismissed.
|
| Call me crazy, but I feel like the guy who started the whole
| thing ("take her down") should face some punishment.
|
| > charged for harassing the Boston duo
|
| This is a nitpick, but they live(d?) in Natick. I live in a
| suburb of Boston and Natick is way farther out than where I sit
| typing this.
|
| Then again I swear I've seen places in Maine calling themselves
| the Boston whatever company, so what do I know.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| >I live in a suburb of Boston and Natick is way farther out
| than where I sit typing this.
|
| Natick is pretty undeniably a suburb of Boston unless you want
| to engage in "anything outside I95 is irreverent boondocks"
| type snobbery which people of the immediate "Boston, the
| adjacent cities and their wealthiest suburbs" are somewhat
| known for.
|
| >Then again I swear I've seen places in Maine calling
| themselves the Boston whatever company, so what do I know.
|
| Calling Portland, Nashua, Kittery or whatever "a Boston suburb"
| is a statement about people, not geography.
| VyseofArcadia wrote:
| > Natick is pretty undeniably a suburb of Boston
|
| That's my point. It's a suburb of Boston. It's not Boston.
| Call them a Natick duo. Credit where credit it due.
|
| > unless you want to engage in "anything outside I95 is
| irreverent boondocks" type snobbery
|
| Just the opposite. I don't like how all the towns outside the
| city get lumped in with the city. Non-local news makes it
| sound like the entire eastern half of the state is Boston,
| but there's more to it than that.
| technothrasher wrote:
| > "anything outside I95 is irreverent boondocks" type
| snobbery
|
| Don't worry, those folks just pass the snobbery down towards
| those of us who live outside I495.
| graton wrote:
| Natick appears to be part of the Greater Boston area:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston
| photochemsyn wrote:
| Creepy ol Pierre Omidyar outfit ebay at it again...
|
| > "James Baugh, of San Jose, California, who was eBay's senior
| director of safety & security, and David Harville, of New York
| City, was eBay's director of global resiliency, are charged with
| conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with
| witnesses. The other former eBay employees charged are Stephanie
| Popp, former senior manager of global intelligence; Brian
| Gilbert, former senior manager of special operations for eBay's
| Global Security Team; Stephanie Stockwell, former manager of
| eBay's Global Intelligence Center; and Veronica Zea, a former
| eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst in the
| Global Intelligence Center."
|
| EBay, your go-to site for fencing stolen goods online, known for
| running massive tax avoidance schemes as well, had some internal
| cinematic goon squad operation. Basically the Streisand Effect.
| The fish rots from the head down, of course.
|
| https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2021/12/02/ebay-ecommerc...
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| >EBay, your go-to site for fencing stolen goods online, known
| for running massive tax avoidance schemes as well,
|
| Lolwut?
|
| A giant eCommerce platform that keeps records of listings and
| transactions going back god knows how long is the last place
| anyone with a brain is trying to fence stolen goods or dodge
| taxes.
|
| eBay has plenty of problems but stolen goods and taxes aren't
| one of them.
| photochemsyn wrote:
| Well, here's how at least one tax avoidance scheme works.
| eBay and Amazon deny wrongdoing, though:
|
| https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/amazon-ebay-face-scrutiny-over-
| vat...
|
| Here's another nice example: a 19-yr career of selling stolen
| shoplifted items on eBay that netted $3.8 million. Looks like
| eBay and PayPal got their cut?
|
| https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/03/us/kim-richardson-ebay-
| federa...
|
| These are not easily trackable items - look on eBay for
| things like electric toothbrushes and baby formula. Where do
| you think the sellers got that stuff from? The shoplifting
| rings that run amok in major US cities are not selling that
| stuff on the streetcorner, after all. Most are not getting
| caught.
| FireBeyond wrote:
| Story time.
|
| I had a phone stolen many years ago. I set a lock screen
| message, "hey, return the phone and I'll give you a reward,
| it's locked".
|
| Nothing. For about a month.
|
| Then some guy calls me. "Hey, so I bought this phone on eBay
| and when I got it I saw your message. So I was scammed. But
| uh, hey, since you probably had insurance, would it be
| possible for you to unlock it so it's not now two of us who
| have lost out?"
|
| Admired his chutzpah. Said "how do I know you didn't steal
| it?" etc. In the end I said I wouldn't do that. So, he
| reaches out to the seller, asks for a refund. Seller refuses.
|
| So he escalates. "Actually, I wasn't asking, I was demanding.
| See, I have the original owner's info now, and will send him
| the listing, and all of your info. Refund me, or I give it
| all to him." Seller refunds him, and he gives me the info
| anyway.
|
| I see my phone listing. IMEI is the same, but two digits
| transposed. Enough that it won't show up on a search. Enough
| that he has plausible deniability. Failed the IMEI validity
| check. Seller is about ten minutes from me. I go to his other
| listings.
|
| Holy shit.
|
| Approximately fifty iPhones and Samsungs. All with the same
| IMEI transposition. Approximately a quarter describe that the
| phones are activation locked, but the rest don't.
|
| Oh, and all the listings. "Does not include charger. Does not
| include headphones. Does not include cables. Does not include
| accessories."
|
| I continue scrolling. Oh, look, this guy is also selling
| about forty or so Macbooks.
|
| Guess what? None of them come with a charger either, or any
| accessories.
|
| So I reach out to the local cops.
|
| "Well, he is probably not the person who stole your phone,
| just someone else."
|
| "I'm fairly sure knowingly selling stolen goods is also a
| crime."
|
| "How can you say that they're stolen?"
|
| "Well, absence of chargers, etc., would probably indicate
| that..."
|
| "..."
|
| They did nothing.
|
| I resisted the urge to drive by his home and sugar his gas
| tank. Barely.
|
| Anyway, anecdotally, plenty of people fence things on eBay.
| Admittedly that might not be because they're stupid, but
| because they know local law enforcement doesn't care.
|
| Turo around here is being used to launder drug money.
| Chrysler 300Cs being "rented" out for weeks on end at
| $600/day. It works well because you don't even lose use of
| the vehicle, just have one of your customers pay Turo for
| "rental" with money you gave them.
| [deleted]
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| The real travesty here is that every single eBay executive above
| the one who gave the order to "take her down" hasn't been
| indicted on criminal charges. They will never face justice for
| the criminal organization they created.
| _fat_santa wrote:
| Its baffling to me how petty these executives got. You're an
| executive of a publicly traded company and your biggest concern
| is a couple running a blog?
|
| They could have easily ignored them and no one would have
| noticed. Crazy.
| somenameforme wrote:
| One thing that's so easy to kind of mentally ignore is that
| every single person - politician, executive, or janitor is just
| another person like we all are. And that comes with good-sides
| and bad-sides of humanity.
|
| Another similar example that struck a chord for me was the
| Snowden leaks showing the NSA were trading peoples nudes/sexual
| pics at work. [1] One of the biggest arguments people apathetic
| towards privacy make is something along 'the [e.g.] NSA doesn't
| care about your [e.g.] tits' - maybe true, maybe not - but the
| humans who actually make up this entity? Oh yes they most
| certainly do.
|
| [1] - https://www.newsweek.com/snowden-claims-nsa-workers-
| circulat...
| winnipeg wrote:
| Did Snowden's leaks prove this, or was it simply reported by
| him?
|
| In any case, I believe his report on this matter was
| accurate/truthful.
| rendall wrote:
| I would totally collect and trade shots of peoples' "O face"
| if I worked there.
| moistly wrote:
| One would think that isn't the kind of character flaw one
| would want to reveal to potential future employers. You
| admit that you can not be trusted with private information.
| rendall wrote:
| Sssh. Relax, pumpkin. My career is secure, but sincerely,
| thank you for your concern. It is honestly touching.
|
| Any "potentially future employer", or employee, for that
| matter, must have a sense of humor, otherwise, it won't
| be a fit.
| RobLach wrote:
| A "successful career" that our culture elevates as a path that
| will be good for you doesn't always fulfill the needs in your
| life that you truly are seeking. Usually that path doesn't even
| give you the space to figure that out.
|
| You end up in a situation where your desires don't match your
| environment and trying to get whatever you're truly missing
| takes abhorrent shapes.
| bell-cot wrote:
| Psychologically, a big part of how they became a successful
| executive might be an obsession with controlling...
| aaaaaaaaata wrote:
| I think it calls into the question what the definition of
| success is, as an executive.
|
| Plenty of these people are stumbling through their day with
| no meaningful contributions, and if the larger organization
| does okay, everyone assumes they're performing.
|
| Are they?
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| Plenty of managers and executives go off on some stupid
| tangent and actively harm the organizations they mange.
| Being a harmless kind of incompetent is worth _something_.
| Maybe not what these kinds of guys get paid, but still
| _something_.
|
| You see this a lot in very rigid bureaucratic organizations
| where you "need" to have a body in the org chart because of
| the rules. The people who just bumble about harmlessly wind
| up managing things that don't need management, the box gets
| checked and everyone goes home happy.
| Veen wrote:
| Your comment reminds me of this quote:
|
| > I divide my officers into four classes as follows: the
| clever, the industrious, the lazy, and the stupid. Each
| officer always possesses two of these qualities. Those
| who are clever and industrious I appoint to the General
| Staff. Use can under certain circumstances be made of
| those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and
| lazy qualifies for the highest leadership posts. He has
| the requisite and the mental clarity for difficult
| decisions. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be
| got rid of, for he is too dangerous.
|
| https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/978019
| 182...
| kibwen wrote:
| _> Harville flew to Boston from California and bought tools with
| a plan to break into the couple's garage and install a GPS
| tracker on their car, prosecutors say._
|
| This is batshit insanity.
| dekhn wrote:
| sounds like garden-variety sociopathy or psychopathy.
| lbriner wrote:
| Did they think they would get away with it or did it just become
| a game? I assume in the US, the punishment for this sort of thing
| is pretty severe?
| unityByFreedom wrote:
| I wonder if some people around 2016-2018 felt they had free
| rein to do whatever because so much other crazy stuff was going
| on.
| [deleted]
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