An MSNBC investigation found multiple eBay listings of steroids for sale, with listings disguised as "books about steroids." Alerted to the problem, eBay officials took down the listings and threatened legal action against the sellers.

"Until [MSNBC] brought this to our attention, it wasn't getting as close a look as it should have," said Rob Chestnut, eBay's point man on rules enforcement. "They were titling it as a book and we were missing it. That's our bad."

As part of the probe, MSNBC worked with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to purchase and test the purposed steroids for sale. Paying between $90 and $140 for each order, MSNBC bought four items on eBay; testing revealed that all were, in fact, anabolic steroids.

At a congressional hearing last year, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) warned about steroids being offered for sale on eBay. "To make matters worse, counterfeit steroids are being sold widely," he said at the time. "These fake drugs are very convincing in appearance … Fake steroids have been known to have mixtures of cooking oil and even motor oil in them. Imagine a high-school student injecting motor oil into his or her body."

DEA officials say they now conduct routine keyword searches of eBay to try to spot illicit-drug sales.

Chestnut denied that eBay ever received a warning letter from Grassley or was told about the DEA's concerns about steroid sales on eBay. But the hearings did have an impact on sellers.

"Before the hearing, they didn't mask what they were selling. It was just steroids or Dbol or whatever," a congressional source told MSNBC. "Afterward, they started saying they were selling photographs of steroids, so you'd see an 8-by-10 photograph of Dianabol and a description saying something like 'this photograph has 200 pixels' so you could delineate the amount of pills you were buying. Then came 'books.' You'll see, next week, they won't be using books anymore."

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