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story
Comments: 197 + - Idle: Woman's Nude Pics End Up Online After Call To Tech Support on Friday July 30, @02:31PM
Posted
by
samzenpus
on Friday July 30, @02:31PM
from the how-was-your-service-today? dept.
from the how-was-your-service-today? dept.
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it
Tara Fitzgerald couldn't find the nude pictures she planned on sending to her boyfriend, but instead of just taking more, she decided to see if a Dell tech support call could fix her problem. Apparently the tech support guy found them. Unfortunately, he then put them up on a site called "bitchtara."
"Is this foreplay?"
"No, this is Nuke Strike. Foreplay has lousy graphics. Beat me again."
-- Duckert, in "Bad Rubber," Albedo #0 (comics)
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Let me be the first to say (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me be the first to say - this 'story' would be a good way to get nerds surfing up to malware-ridden sites. Someone paid for a domain to host the pics of a stranger?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Insightful)
If you read the linked article in TFA, you will find that she BOUGHT HIM A LAPTOP AND MAILED IT TO INDIA! wtf woman
Parent
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Interesting)
And she was dating him online
http://www.rgj.com/article/20100729/NEWS13/100729021/1321/news [rgj.com]
"Following the initial technical call, conversations between Fitzgerald and Shaikh quickly turned personal. Fitzgerald admitted being flattered by the attention from the Indian support tech, whose MySpace page identifies him as being 24 years old. "He's very charming and he knew exactly what to say. It warmed my heart," she said."
Sorry lady, the guy might have stolen your photos and called you a bitch (hence bitchtara.com) but you started dating him online and gave him your credit card and bought him gifts.
Parent
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:5, Informative)
No, there was both.
First he told her he'd need a new laptop mailed to him to 'work on the case from home', which she overnighted to him.
Then, he used her credit card to buy another woman a computer and a router.
Parent
Well (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
The bare facts certainly are disturbing. But the naked truth is that Dell's customer service is just obscene. I think that support analyst should be stripped of his position.
Good sir, I believe that one must produce digitized, pixelated facsimiles of said photography... In lieu of said event, I must protest it being a factual portion of the past.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Right. Like he said, pics or it didn't happen.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well (Score:4, Informative)
http://bitchtara.webs.com
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I think you meant to post this on reddit...
Story is so absurd (Score:4, Insightful)
So she took the pics and then "lost them"... but the support guy found them in her email. She obviously sent/received them at some point, and how she could just 'forget' they were in her email is hard to fathom. Then she sends the guy who WORKS FOR DELL a laptop? She may be the victim, but boy is she good at it.
Oh, and of course: PICS OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN
Re:Story is so absurd (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"I really had faith that he was protecting my dignity."
I think that train already left the station
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
> ...how she could just 'forget' they were in her email is hard to fathom.
Not done much tech support, have you?
So.... (Score:4, Funny)
Pics still up?
Re:So.... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
There was a thread yesterday on reddit.com that had all the links to the pictures, myspace, her contact info, etc. Do yourself the favor and don't look, it's pretty bad.
However, she does dance worse than Elaine.
Re: (Score:2)
It's the internet. The way things get recopied my guess is the pics will never really be eliminated from this point on.
You just can't stop "the signal". It's amazing how many people try though. Reminds me of a time back in high school (this was circa 1998 - the web wasn't what it was today, but it had still been around for a good long time). A guy I knew had written some poetry, and asked if there was a way that he could keep people from copying it if he posted it online. And I made sure I was understa
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/cv888/womans_nudie_pics_are_stolen_from_her_computer_as/?sort=top [reddit.com]
there ya go
Unfortunately (Score:3, Insightful)
The only way to get action from companies today is to publish a bad PR story.
How sad is that?
That is the real problem, lack of accountability not the fact that it happens, that the only way to get it fixed is to make the company suffer publically.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Corporate does not automatically equal lack of accountability. The bigger companies become the more difficult it becomes to manage false claims vs. legit ones. Using bad PR is a great resource to help a company perform better in the future.
That's not sad, it's just life.
Should the website really be called (Score:3, Funny)
If true... (Score:5, Insightful)
If true, someone at Dell could end up having a friendly conversation with someone from the FBI.
If it was only exposure of private data (pictures) then Dell may have gotten away with a just a civil resolution. If it is true that the tech extorted a laptop, then it becomes a criminal case. People can go to jail.
This could become quite costly to Dell in terms of goodwill if proven that someone representing them extorted material goods from one of their own customers.
At this juncture I would like to interject... (Score:2, Redundant)
Pics or it didn't happen.
welcome to the real world tara (Score:3)
LoB
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
is it just me or does she sound waaaay naive
No, it's just you. To everybody else she sounds extremely intelligent and not at all gullible or made-up.
This just in... (Score:4, Funny)
Dell's attorney's have assured Tara she is their 'true friend', and will help her resolve this if she will send them a new Dell laptop.
Here's the problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Using my amazing powers of deduction, I have found this to be the root cause of the trouble.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
My guess would be all permutations of "trusted", "Dell" and "technician". There are probably a few other suspect word pairings in there as well.
The same thing happened to me (Score:3, Funny)
The list is on the refrigerator door (Score:4, Funny)
How may rupees is a gallon of eye bleach these days?
Doesn't sound like an innocent victim (Score:5, Informative)
"Romantic conversations
...
...
Following the initial technical call, conversations between Fitzgerald and Shaikh quickly turned personal. Fitzgerald admitted being flattered by the attention from the Indian support tech, whose MySpace page identifies him as being 24 years old. "He's very charming and he knew exactly what to say. It warmed my heart," she said.
Fitzgerald shared a number of personal e-mails Shaikh sent her from his Hotmail account shortly after their first conversation, including the following message dated Jan. 11, 2009:
"There are no words to express how I feel about you. I constantly search for the words, and they all seem less than I truly feel. You are my life, my heart, and my soul. You are my best friend. You are my one true love. I still remember the day we first met. I knew that you were the one I was meant to be with forever."
On Valentine's Day 2009, Fitzgerald said Shaikh told her he had fallen in love with a 22-year-old woman in Tennessee who had also called Dell technical support.
Fitzgerald later discovered two mysterious purchases on Feb. 17 totalling $802 charged to her Dell Preferred credit card. She called Dell and was told the charges were for a computer system and router shipped to a woman in Waynesboro, Tennessee."
(Outsourcing nightmare: Sacramento woman describes Dell tech support abuse (watch video report), RGJ.com, July 29, 2010)
Not the actress then... (Score:3, Informative)
When I first read the name I thought that maybe the British actress [imdb.com] of the same name, notorious for (tasteful) nude scenes in 1990s films. Obviously not.
So, maybe this is all made up and the woman's real name isn't Tara Fitzgerald at all?
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably that Dell employees would actually respect customer confidentiality. Would it be any different if it had been a confidential business letter or accounts statement?
I hope the employee has been dropped from a very great height by Dell. It doesn't inspire much trust in getting support from them.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, the dell employee should be hanged upside down, that said, she certainly lowers the bar for dumb!
its already dumb enough to call tech support to recover your own nude pics, its even dumber she got convinced to send a laptop to the guy to help her with her nakedness problem., that's be-yond ridiculous.
also, props to mark72005 below, nicely worded.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that he's a Dell Employee is irrelevant (though no doubt the company will get sued, too). This is a simple case of theft and harassment. Jail for the perp, leave his boss alone.
Next!
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
And for the record, I am not a Dell fanboy, but we buy almost exclusively Dell where I work and their business tech support is top notch. I talk to real live Americans every time I call, and they never hassle me about anything.
And now allow me to quote from the wiki page about Dell.
In May 2008, the New York Supreme Court ruled that Dell and Dell Financial Services "engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices, and abusive debt collection practices". The relevant lawsuit aimed primarily to highlight and seek restitution for a lack of technical support given to customers by Dell. The court plans to hold further proceedings to determine how much money Dell has to pay out to customers and how much profit Dell ma
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Funny)
...get yourself and a few hundred friends to star war-dialing the company...
For those not familiar with the practice, that's when you call someone and make wookie noises into the phone.
Parent
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just as there is little the company could do to stop this, they also have to expect to pay for the damage done. That is the price of doing business. Being liable for damages and being bad are not the same thing.
If one of the trees in my yard falls over in a storm and crushes my neighbors car, I am liable for paying for it. I am not a bad man because of it.
This woman called Dell. She did not look up this perticular tech person and seek his help. She called Dell. Dell answered the phone. They used this tech as their agent, but the company responded. The woman did not have a business arrangement with the tech. She had one with Dell. Is Dell evil for hiring this guy? Not likely. Are they responsible for the actions of their agent. Yes.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Regardless of the local standard of living, they are being taken advantage of. If the job is worth a fixed amount, it should be worth that amount everywhere. Just because it can be outsourced to another country (India) for 10% or less of another country (USA), it isn't right to pay the lower rate.
The baseline pay rate should never be lowered. It should only be increased for areas of higher cost of living. Any company outsourcing knows that they can't pay the same rate in another countr
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Around $10 - 13 / hr is / was typical for the in-store, line-level techs (the admins make less, sometimes a lot less).
Supervisors and in-home techs will usually make $15 - $17ish / hr.
The cap for their pay grade is / was $20 or $21 IIRC. But in practice, BBY is more likely to promote someone to management than pay them more than $17 or $18 in Geek Squad.
This info is a few years old (when minimum wage was in the $5 / hr range). I wouldn't be surprised if the figures were all about $1 higher now, but I don't
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, you must have had a bad Dell experience to get so fired up you can't even type straight.
Re:Ha! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Too effing bad... sorry. (Score:4, Insightful)
Except, that is a shitty way to live. So we invented criminal punishments to deal with asshats.
Throw the tech in jail.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's Obvious (Score:4, Funny)
M maybe, but even looking at the video still of her at the desk there's nothing ILF about that.
Parent