Woman's Nude Pics End Up Online After Call To Tech Support

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."

Comments

tu;dl

[Anonymous Coward]

tu;dw too ugly, didn't watch

Let me be the first to say

[Mirey]

lol

Re:Let me be the first to say

[Threni]

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:Let me be the first to say

[ottothecow]

Story doesn't go far enough.

If you read the linked article in TFA, you will find that she BOUGHT HIM A LAPTOP AND MAILED IT TO INDIA! wtf woman

Re:Let me be the first to say

[AtomicOrange]

Not quite, if you searching for other articles and links he billed it to her Dell account. She didn't purchase it for him.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[drunkennewfiemidget]

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.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[Anonymous Coward]

l2read

Re:Let me be the first to say

[JWSmythe]

    She's a classic scam victim. Obviously someone with extra cash who can be exploited. It's sad, but ... well ... people can't be stupid enough to fall for these scams.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[iamhassi]

"If you read the linked article in TFA, you will find that she BOUGHT HIM A LAPTOP AND MAILED IT TO INDIA! wtf woman"

And she was dating him online
http://www.rgj.com/article/20100729/NEWS13/100729021/1321/news
"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.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[Anonymous Coward]

Agree. On July 1st, 2010, she, miss tigerstar7, was still Facebook friends with him, according to Google's cache. Once you take it out of the professional, and into the personal, you can't have the cake anymore. It's eaten.

Re:Let me be the first to say

[stephanruby]

It's more of a subdomain on a free site. It's not that difficult to get--> http://bitchtara.webs.com/

Re:Let me be the first to say

[marto]

Yeah, for him to 'work' on the problem he created. Sounds trustworthy to me :P

Re:Let me be the first to say

[jesset77]

It took her this long to try a different strategy and go to the media

This all smells like balloon boy to me.

Ha!

[MightyMartian]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Is this woman a complete moron? What is it exactly that she expected. What an utter dunce.

Re:Ha!

[h4rm0ny]

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.

Re:Ha!

[Reginald2]

You make a good point. I shudder to think of it's implications and all the stories that nobody hears.

There seems to be a corporate attitude that the "customer" is the enemy attempting to steal profits the company rightly deserves. The support industry is a for profit enterprise and it is run on amazingly narrow margins (hence all the outsourcing). Every ticket, every complaint, and every second of work is a second of profit lost.

Re:Ha!

[Programmer_In_Traini]

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!

[Coren22]

Wow, you must have had a bad Dell experience to get so fired up you can't even type straight.

Re:Ha!

[blair1q]

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!

Re:Ha!

[TheLink]

They still haven't fixed his keyboard?

Re:Ha!

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a good reason why she feels like a complete idiot....

Re:Ha!

[mweather]

Probably that Dell employees would actually respect customer confidentiality.

Exactly. She's an idiot.

Re:Ha!

[commodore64_love]

So if you want to take-down a company, all you need to do is get yourself and a few hundred friends to star war-dialing the company, so they will waste precious time (and money) answering the bogus calls at the Service Center

Re:Ha!

[commodore64_love]

>>>[she expected] Dell employees would actually respect customer confidentiality.

So you go Dell for laptop help, and instead they steal your nude photos and upload them to the world wide web. No wonder Dell's now rated the worst computer company

"Dude you're gettin' a Screwed by Dell!"

Re:Ha!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

According to the article after a year of repeated complaints Dell have yet to even respond, so she turned to the media and still Dell have yet to respond.

Re:Ha!

[Guignol]

exelent ! they will need to fix mine now though ;)

Re:Ha!

[jasomill]

Would it be any different if it had been a confidential business letter or accounts statement?

Just as Penthouse sells somewhat better than the Budget of the United States Government, I presume naked pictures of women have more mass appeal than naked pictures of companies' operational and financial information.

As is so often the case with security, the difference lies in the threat model.

I hope the employee has been dropped from a very great height by Dell.

Agreed.

It doesn't inspire much trust in getting support from them.

I don't know — beyond terminating the offending parties with prejudice, I'm not sure there's much "garden variety" (i.e., those who do not specialize in providing support to clients with stringent security requirements) vendors can be expected to do — SCIF-calibre security doesn't come cheap. Where possible, for good measure, I tend to wipe systems before sending them off for repair, and I've never had a problem. The probability of the CIA, say, sending its laptops to Dell for repair/exchange is effectively nil, regardless of any security restrictions Dell imposes; much the same applies to any sensible organization with truly critical confidentiality requirements. "Extreme security" is hard and expensive, so it can't, and shouldn't, be provided "just because."

The idea, roughly, is this: if your information is so confidential that you need to worry about support organization security procedures, you better be prepared to support yourself, or obtain alternative support from vendors specializing in this sort of thing, because "the masses" aren't willing to pay the price of good security (and rightly so).

Note that photo processors were compromising, ahem, compromising pictures long before the advent of the personal computer; that one should apply common sense and discretion under these circumstances is hardly new; that the parties involved often fail to do so is hardly surprising. The good news is that creators of amateur erotica need no longer invest in a darkroom when "playing it safe" with this sort of thing.

Re:Ha!

[rainmouse]

In no way is this a typical case. This is a company that adverstises its 'pride in customer support' when after a year of complaints, Dell has even to respond to the victim.
Though I am surprised to see so many Dell fanboys (Dellboys?) queueing up to mock a typical computer user who has at most basic computer skills. Lets face it only people with basic computer skills would probably even buy a Dell to begin with.

Re:Ha!

[osu-neko]

...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.

Re:Ha!

[djdavetrouble]

Stop reading all those 80's text files on that commodore 64 there buddy, or I'll blow 2600 hz on you.

Re:Ha!

[Mister Whirly]

Someone calls the Dell hardware tech support to find the nude pictures of herself she can't locate on her own computer and you are telling us we shouldn't be mocking her?

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. Say what you want about their "home computer" tech support, but their corporate support is very good.

Re:Ha!

[rainmouse]

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 made unlawfully, in New York.

In light of the worrying news article and evidence that the company itself is involved all these dubious practices and not just their outsourced staff, it makes me wonder how many other things like this have happened that we have not heard about, perhaps partly keeping quiet in fear of being mocked all over the web by Dell fanboys.

Re:Ha!

[tomhudson]

. I talk to real live Americans every time I call

That's what they want you to believe - and you're dumb enough to believe it. Sheesh. Oh, right, you buys buy Dell. Sorry, don't let me stop you getting back on the short bus for the ride home.

Re:Ha!

[Belial6]

I would agree with most of what you said...Except...

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.

Re:Ha!

[Mister Whirly]

If you think that home tech support and corporate tech support are both run from the same service center in India, you are sorely mistaken. I have called their tech support directly in Texas many times before. The reason we buy Dell is the average discount due to the volume we buy, is around $400 per system. Nothing dumb about that.

Seeing as Dell is so bad, who would you recommend?

Re:Ha!

[Anonymous Coward]

In certain European countries beeping noises are also acceptable.

Heavy breathing is entirely different though.

Re:Ha!

[Mister Whirly]

Again their "home user" tech support and "corporate" tech support are worlds apart. I have no doubt their home support sucks - thankfully I don't ever use it seeing all my Dell purchases have been for work. I don't think Dell is the greatest, it is just my real world experience is much different from some of the stories I have read. Of the 4 major computer manufacturers we do business with at my job, Dell by far has the best business tech support out of any of them.

Re:Ha!

[Anonymous Coward]

The relationship Dell has with their customers is ripe for exposure, and it's their responsibility to ensure their own employees do not breach it. If they didn't take the appropriate measures to educate their employees, then they also had a hand in it.

If leave a dangerous object unattended, I am still at fault if someone gets hurt. If Dell is allowed to keep washing their hands, then what's their incentive to focus on building a better work force?

Re:Ha!

[Jenming]

Dell is responsible for his actions he takes as an agent for Dell, such as stealing her pics. At some point the two developed a personal relationship that did not include Dell. Communications between the two that did not take part on company time or as part of his official duties are probably not Dell's problem.

Take your car analogy, the storm blows the tree over and it hits your neighbors car, likely your liability. Your neighbor than starts to date the tree online, buys it a computer and gives it her credit card number which it uses to buy gifts for its other lady friends. Likely not your liability.

Re:Ha!

[machxor]

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.

Speaking from experience, chances are very high that you would not be liable for an act of God.

Re:Ha!

[Belial6]

Agreed.

Re:Ha!

[tombeard]

Actually you are not. Their homeowners policy will cover the damage. Same as if it hit their house.

Re:Ha!

[Belial6]

Their homeowner insurance company will then contact YOUR homeowner insurance company to collect. Same as if it hit their house.

Re:Ha!

[phyrexianshaw.ca]

Anything else.

If an IT department needs to be calling Dell/HP/IBM/anybody's tech support, they're understaffed/under trained. in such a case, why do you even have an internal tech department?

if you bought in real volume, you'd be getting better deals than Dell does. though without knowing the size of your company, all this is just me sounding like an over zealous idiot. carry on!

Re:Ha!

[blair1q]

A person isn't a dangerous object, unless you know he's got prior history of being dangerous.

The embarassment and the cost of replacing the employee is enough to induce any rational company to improve its processes so that employees are encouraged not to be dicks. (You may now whine that you don't believe Dell is rational.)

Thinking that Dell condones this or was in any way negligent about it is ludicrous. It's like thinking Dell would condone an employee who steals food from the cafeteria or who punches co-workers in the parking lot or who urinates into computer boxes before they're shipped. Nor would Dell be liable for those things.

At a certain point, an employees' actions are independent of Dell's sphere of control, and are not the company's fault.

Re:Ha!

[zeropointburn]

That depends. Any place where support is a cost center, yeah, expect to get screwed. Deal with a company that you actually pay for support (whether or not you also buy hardware/software from them) and you get a little leverage. If you are a business, pay someone for a support contract. It's worth it.

Re:Ha!

[tomhudson]

I have called their tech support directly in Texas many times before.

That means NOTHING. Indians have the southern twang down to a tee. They use it to make fun of you all the time. Don't you ever watch the comedians on TV? It's like when I go to the states and everyone assumes I'm a local because I pick up the local accent in a few hours. I even stop saying "eh!". Now a Bronx accent ... that's harder. but Texas, aw shucks ...

And with VoIP, your local call can easily be half a world away and you wouldn't know it.

Re:Ha!

[Mephistro]

If an IT department needs to be calling Dell/HP/IBM/anybody's tech support, they're understaffed/under trained.

So, instead of making a call to the support center and wasting an hour or two to discover the cause of those strange glitches in a new model of computer your company purchased by the dozens, your ideal IT department would start by investigating the issue from scratch and wasting 10s of man hours to discover the cause of the issue , eh? Makes perfect sense. Not.

in such a case, why do you even have an internal tech department?

Because quite often the support center doesn't have a clue. Perhaps the relevant information is somewhere in their technical dept, but no mater what you do, you can't contact 'the right guy' who knows the answers. Perhaps it's that your computers are the only ones that suffer the issue, due to your company using non-standard software or hardware. Perhaps the issue is extremely difficult to pinpoint, or extremely difficult to explain. In those cases the two or three hours the IT dept spends calling support are not lost, they're just part of the time needed to investigate and fix the problem.

Re:Ha!

[Mister Whirly]

Hardware tech support. Like when a component dies. It happens.

I work at a university with a faculty/staff of about 40,000. We probably buy as a whole 8,000 or so Dell systems a year.

Re:Ha!

[Mister Whirly]

Please take your tinfoil hat off, or at least loosen it a bit.

Re:Ha!

[Mephistro]

I mostly agree. Except for the fact that Dell, a company based in a country with strong customer privacy laws and the ability to enforce them, is sending their customer's data to third counties that either lack these laws, or lack the ability to enforce the above said laws. That should be totally forbidden, but sadly it is not. Making Dell -or any other company doing the same thing- legally responsible for these kind of privacy breaches makes perfect sense.

My 0.02 €

Re:Ha!

[tomhudson]

No tinfoil hat involved. You cannot tell a person's race or cultural background or where they live by how they sound over the phone, and anyone who believes otherwise is living in the past.

Just like you cannot tell where a person is calling from based on the area code. Those days are LONG gone.

Re:Ha!

[thetoadwarrior]

He may be at fault and needs to be punished but he did do it doing his job so the company is responsible too.

Re:Ha!

[jesset77]

Well, the dell employee should be hanged upside down, that said, she certainly lowers the bar for dumb!

Yeah, but if you read all of the stories the "wtf" and "god your dumb" factor dissolves.

She began chatting with this guy due to tech support complaints. Then she started dating him online. She's still dating him now in fact, as they're still connected on facebook.

Claiming she talked to tech support about naked pictures (since he has them) and claiming the laptop had to do with resolving the naked pictures problem (since she sent that) is dissembling. She sent the laptop before the website went up.

Fact is she had a turbulent online affair. She probably got jerked around, but it didn't apparently have a thing to do with Dell: that's just how they met. Now she's running to the media (not the authorities) because she's pissed and she can paint this as a "tech support nightmare" "evil outsourcing" scenario and reap notoriety.

Re:Ha!

[jesset77]

He may be at fault and needs to be punished but he did do it doing his job so the company is responsible too.

[ Citation Needed ]

The video blurs the case and parrots her side of the story, but nowhere has it been demonstrated that the things this guy did were in any way related to his job. Even the video shows them chatting outside of Dell's support system. I saw Facebook and AIM on there.

And have you ever used a corporate tech support system? There is no way to get connected to the same tech when you go in through the front door, they assign you a new one. That's specifically to prevent these kinds of scenarios from being possible within the system. If she's been filing complaints for over a year that this guy has ripped off her nude pics, then why does she keep connecting to him and overnighting him hardware?

The linked video claims messages from "just last week" show him saying "you're a really good friend, Tara". Does that fit into a yearlong protracted tech support, supervisor invoking battle, or an off-duty chummy chum relationship gone sour?

Anyway, the company can't be legally punished needed or not until she takes this to the authorities instead of the media. Unfortunately, the authorities won't just parrot her sensational restacking of facts like the media does.

In other news, Bubble Boy was a hoax.

Re:Ha!

[thetoadwarrior]

Of course if it didn't actually happen or didn't happen on the job then that is a different story. However if it happened at work then of course Dell has to take some responsibility. The logic that they can't be held responsible for things that happen on their facilities is retarded. By that logic no business can ever do wrong because it's an employee, not the business, that actually does something wrong.

Re:Ha!

[machxor]

Not sure why my comment was modded as troll or flamebait. Long story short parents tree fell on a friends car; homeowners insurance wouldn't cover an "act of God" and a judge didn't find my parents liable. They ended up settling partial out of good faith.

Re:Ha!

[Programmer_In_Traini]

huh, that's interesting, ill need to re-watch the video (didnt read, just watched), pardon my english, i was sure i had understood she (the victim) sent the laptop to the techie who himself sent it to some dudette he was dating online.

Well

[mark72005]

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.

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

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:Well

[mhatt]

I think you meant to post this on reddit...

Re:Well

[hoggoth]

Right. Like he said, pics or it didn't happen.

Re:Well

[pak9rabid]

I think that support analyst should be stripped of his position.

He'll just go work for HP instead.

Re:Well

[IgnoramusMaximus]

Also, Google fails to locate the site "bitchtara" and so the pursuit of the truth, strictly for the sake of scientific discovery, is so far thwarted.

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

http://bitchtara.webs.com

Re:Well

[Pointy_Hair]

Isn't "stripped" what started the whole thing? srsly

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha, ha, man, that video. Man, that's great. She's dancing in a bra like an idiot. There ain't no crime in taking advantage of idiots. I wish I had modpoints to boost you.

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

stripped and spanked!!!

Re:Well

[linzeal]

She looks like some prude who just went through a divorce and is realizing that a handjob a month is not going to land her a mate anymore.

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be a dick. You don't know this woman.

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

URGH! Cannot be unseen :(

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

im scarred =/

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

but where are the pictures?

Re:Well

[Anonymous Coward]

Well done, sir.

Story is so absurd

[jeffmeden]

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

[Anonymous Coward]

PICS OR IT DIDNT HAPPEN

tub girl in 3...2...1...

Re:Story is so absurd

[pudding7]

The pics and videos are available online. I've seen them. I wish I hadn't.

Re:Story is so absurd

[theshowmecanuck]

I wonder if he did this as retribution to something she said to him. If so, he is likely a hero in the tech support trenches of Hyderabad. If that isn't the case, then "off with his head". (Quoting Alice In Wonderland for those who might be too literal minded.)

Re:Story is so absurd

[budgenator]

"I really had faith that he was protecting my dignity."
I think that train already left the station

Re:Story is so absurd

[John Hasler]

> ...how she could just 'forget' they were in her email is hard to fathom.

Not done much tech support, have you?

Re:Story is so absurd

[Anonymous Coward]

The pics and videos are available online. I've seen them.

As have I. Dell should compensate me for eye bleach and mental suffering, though they would probably use the Goatse/Tubgirl defense.

Re:Story is so absurd

[Tool Man]

Oh dear. Yeah, I'm not sure dignity can be found after that video on the front page.

So....

[axl917]

Pics still up?

Re:So....

[Drakkenmensch]

It's the internet. Ten years from now they'll still be posted somewhere.

Re:So....

[AtomicOrange]

From the pictures I'm seeing, I'm not so sure I want to see them.

Bah, who am I kidding. I'm curious, and I'm like Nixon so I'll likely keep them and file them away on one of the multitude of hard drives I have.

Re:So....

[Joshuah]

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:So....

[MBGMorden]

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 understanding him correctly - he wasn't talking about copyright - he was literally talking about preventing them from making a copy. Aside from the lunacy of even trying to get a technical measure to do this - these things were like 20-30 lines long. Talk about an analog hole . . .

We ended up at the same college and, God bless him, he actually declared as a Computer Science major. He dropped out after the first semester and last I heard was delivering newspapers.

Re:So....

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/cv888/womans_nudie_pics_are_stolen_from_her_computer_as/?sort=top

there ya go

Re:So....

[hitmark]

as news no less...

Re:So....

[ArsonSmith]

I'm sure slashdot will dupe it long before ten years from now.

Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

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:Unfortunately

[JM78]

It's just as sad that so many asshats in our society file frivolous lawsuits making it more difficult for legit complaints to be taken seriously.

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.

Re:Unfortunately

[jd]

Corporate does not automatically equal accountability either, which is why one should never buy a product in order to have someone to blame if it goes wrong. One should try to buy products that won't go wrong in the first place.

However, it is a mistake to think that legal action equals accountability either. The law, these days, has little provision for the judge to take the facts into account and lawyers don't put in equal effort, which means the law ceases to be about what is far and becomes who can game the system the best.

Re:Unfortunately

[Jedi Alec]

Really? If I have a dispute with a company, these would be the steps I'd take

1. Talk with them in person, see if we can sort things out as reasonable adults.
2. Threaten to contact consumer protection agencies.
3. Actually contact consumer protection agencies.
4. Threaten to involve lawyers and go to court
5. Actually involve lawyers and go to court

So far I've never had to proceed past step 2. Then again, I consider myself to be a well-spoken intelligent individual and that helps when discussing problems. Acting like an hysterical moron tends to put off people in customer service(I should know, having been a CSR for more than 5 years). So alternatively, as a step 0a: get a well-spoken intelligent friend to come along and do the talking for you.

This is what dell gets for moving techs to india

[Joe The Dragon]

This is what dell gets for moving techs to india

Pics or it didn't happen

[Anonymous Coward]

[NT]

Re:Pics or it didn't happen

[VJ42]

here you go: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/cv888/womans_nudie_pics_are_stolen_from_her_computer_as/?sort=top

Should the website really be called

[oldmac31310]

stupidbitchtara?

MOAR OUTSOURCING!

[Anonymous Coward]

it's the only way to protect the American Way of Life. Service like this you just can't get in the US. I'm glad Dell is looking out for their customers.

less than a western minimum wage

[Anonymous Coward]

Costs a lot less to live in India.

Less than a western minimum wage doesn't mean it is a bad rate in India. Doesn't mean he was being taken advantage of.

If true...

[Antony T Curtis]

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.

Re:If true...

[rubycodez]

was the tech support guy in india? he'll get fired and show up the next day at his new Dell tech support job with changed name "John Q. Smith"

Re:If true...

[Anonymous Coward]

This could become quite costly to Dell in terms of goodwill...

For over ten years Dell has been untrustworthy. When I have called Dell tech support and customer service on behalf of family members, they lie and hang up and ignore the problems I present them with. Nothing has changed and they are still a multi-billion dollar company.

What is it that you expect to happen? Things are as they have always been with Dell: take the money and fuck with the customer. Nobody cares at Dell; they will still be getting customers like Fitzgerald.

Re:If true...

[JWSmythe]

From what I saw, the laptop wasn't extortion (coercion or threat). He conned her. She was dumb and fell for it.

    If he had been in the US, there could have been charges. The most she can really hope for is a civil resolution with Dell. I'm sure they'll pass the buck to "Dell India", a subsidiary of Dell, Inc. Most companies are very careful to segregate parts so the company as a whole cannot be held liable for infractions by a part. Usually it's set up so a partition of the company can go bankrupt and not disrupt the entire company.

I wish her the best of luck. Suing someone in another country can be a pain in the ass. I worked at a company where we had a partnership with a foreign company. We shipped tens of thousands of dollars of equipment over. Once it was all set up and operational, they cut ties to us and used our equipment as their own. Our lawyers retained local lawyers in their jurisdiction, and it slowly made its way into court. We were warned "Because you are a foreign company, they will keep this tied up in court years, and you will still lose regardless of the proof that the equipment is yours." They pursued it anyways.

I worked there for several more years, and when I left we still hadn't seen our equipment. By then, it was all horribly outdated, but there was one particular piece of equipment that I would have liked to get back (a Sony PTZ camera). It would have been cheaper and easier to just buy a new one. The bosses wanted everything back, because it didn't belong to the other company.

Re:If true...

[vertinox]

If it is true that the tech extorted a laptop, then it becomes a criminal case. People can go to jail.

While the US has an extradition treaty with India, it is highly unlikely they would do anything over there as would require major FBI pressure.

Re:Hoax, anyone?

[shemp42]

Yea I have to agree, the first thing I though was that this lady planned this to get $ out of a settlement. In the article the lady says that she trusted the tech and felt that he had her best interest in mind. Really!!! You trust some random guy from India that you have never met. It all just seems fishy to me.

It's Obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

Dell -- For a MILF Generation

Re:It's Obvious

[brainboyz]

M maybe, but even looking at the video still of her at the desk there's nothing ILF about that.

Re:Minimum wage means minimum effort

[Reginald2]

I bet a Dell laptop is the equivalent of an excellent severance package.

At this juncture I would like to interject...

[StikyPad]

Pics or it didn't happen.

welcome to the real world tara

[Locutus]

is it just me or does she sound waaaay naive

LoB

Re:welcome to the real world tara

[dangitman]

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...

[new death barbie]

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.

Re:Hoax, anyone?

[Imagix]

Not only "trust some random guy from India", but "trust some random guy from India who has already posted your private data to the net". What does it take to have her _not_ trust someone?

Here's the problem

[Mr. Freeman]

From the video: "I trusted him because he was a Dell technician"

Using my amazing powers of deduction, I have found this to be the root cause of the trouble.

Re:Here's the problem

[JWSmythe]

    Which part? "I trusted him", "Dell technician" or just "Dell"?

Re:Here's the problem

[jd]

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

[elrous0]

And it took me forever to get my pics off of fathairybasementdwellers.com

Douchebag Employees - Fact of Life

[Anonymous Coward]

Anytime you employee over 75,000 people, some of them are bound to be douchebags.

Re:Douchebag Employees - Fact of Life

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in the US government, it's only taken 5....

The website in question

[Anonymous Coward]

Though the images themselves are down.

Here's a screenshot:

Re:Too effing bad... sorry.

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Whether or not a company or employee has an obligation to respect your privacy (I think they always should do so, but that's irrelevant), if you are going to give them the opportunity to violate it, you had better be prepared for the consequences if they do. While you may have legal recourse against them, that recourse might not be any real consolation, so one should not presume that their confidential information will stay confidential, if they are giving access to it to somebody else who has not actually *personally* earned we sort of their trust through an already existing relationship of some kind.

Except, that is a shitty way to live. So we invented criminal punishments to deal with asshats.

Throw the tech in jail.

Taken advantage of?

[Anonymous Coward]

People in Indonesia line up for MILES to get a US Outsourced job like this. They get paid roughly similar to what a DOCTOR in these places makes. They can live VERY nice, middle-class lives with the money they're making.

Maybe you should do a quick study on the Cost of Living in these countries before you start spouting off how Dell (or any other company) is "taking advantage" of workers in other countries.

Re:Taken advantage of?

[JWSmythe]

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 country.

    I'm still a firm believer that resources should be allocated to the area where they are provided. If you're providing service to a US customer, the resources for that product should be in the US.

    A long time ago, I was dealing with a US cell provider. I'm on the east coast of the US. My support calls were always routed to the east coast of the US. I called after hours (local time), and did get routed to the west coast. The tech who answered the phone was a bit surprised and said "I usually don't get calls from over there." Routing calls outside of the local area should be the exception, not the rule. When I make a support call during normal working hours, I should be able to get a local technician on the phone.

    I was dealing with IBM Managed Hosting Services. Every initial call was routed to India, regardless of where I was really at. I was doing a site visit after normal hours to work on a few machines. I flew into Atlanta, and drove my rental car to the address that they provided me. The building was locked up tight. I called, and they told me the building was accessible, even though my hand was on the door, and it was locked. I asked to speak with someone on the site, and they (India) said they'd call and then call me back.

    Over the next hour, while I was standing outside in 40 degree weather with my gear watching homeless people walking by, I made several calls back. After my fourth call, they stopped answering my calls. All I could do was leave voicemails. My tone went from friendly, to aggravated, to downright pissed off.

    Finally, I got a call from the Atlanta data center. They said "oh, we saw you on the security cameras, but didn't know who you were." Well dressed guy with a laptop bag and box of gear, at the time they were expecting me, who would have thought I was there to do work.

    As it turned out, there were only two people in India handling the phones. They had given me the wrong address. Well, according to them it was right. The "correct" place to go was next door. To access the facility, I had to go to an unmarked door next door, push the buzzer to be allowed in. I'd then walk through a closed mall to another unmarked door in the back. From there, I'd be escorted around the corner to an elevator, up three stories, to a nondescript security desk. That was the first place where a human was sitting. From there, it was the normal datacenter access crap.

    I had a strict schedule for 4 days on the road. Three hours of fucking around with a call center in India was not acceptable. Rather than being done at 11pm, I wasn't finished until 2am. I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me to get to the next site, which didn't happen on time. Tired, I parked in a rest area in the middle of nowhere and took a two hour nap. Cutting a few corners through the trip (mostly not sleeping) got me finished all my tasks, and made it in time for my return flight.

    Another time, again with IBM's call center in India, the girl on the phone was amazingly broken english. Like, I didn't know how they put her on the phone. It took about 5 minutes to explain the name of our company (simple English words, spelled normally), and then she asked for the "internet protocol address of the host" (said in very broken English), we told her. She didn't understand numbers in English. How exactly do you get on the phone to do support for the US, when you can't understand English?

[rant mode off]

Re:Taken advantage of?

[Dishevel]

You sir are an idiot. The worth of a job is determined by the market. Probably why you stand around in cold weather outside with the other idiots. Must have gone to a tech school because a well rounded education might have taught you this. The very fact that the demand is so high for the jobs seems to most intelligent people that those people in line do not think they are being taken advantage of but most of them feel like they want the opportunity to do this work for that wage.

No STFU and go stand outside some data center for a while.

Re:Taken advantage of?

[BobMcD]

If the job is worth a fixed amount, it should be worth that amount everywhere.

You failed to say 'why' and this is absolutely a non-obvious statement. Imagine you're buying strawberries off of the side of the road, adjacent to the farm where they were grown. Now imagine those same strawberries being sold to you on the international space station. Still 'worth that same amount everywhere'? If not with commodities, like food, then why with labor?

The baseline pay rate should never be lowered. It should only be increased for areas of higher cost of living.

Okay... then all you need do is imagine that the lowest rate is the base, and all the others are the increased rate. Logical gap resolved. Free of charge, this time...

Only one more nit to pick:

They had given me the wrong address. Well, according to them it was right. The "correct" place to go was next door.

...

I had a strict schedule for 4 days on the road. Three hours of fucking around with a call center in India was not acceptable. Rather than being done at 11pm, I wasn't finished until 2am. I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me to get to the next site, which didn't happen on time.

There's very little about the call center being in India that lends to your situation. Don't be so bigoted. If they were Americans with the wrong address and in another location you still would have experienced what happens when you don't buffer your travel schedule.

I do, however, agree on the language point.

Re:Taken advantage of?

[socz]

It's hard to place a monetary value on such things, though I entirely agree that it should at least be in the same country.

I heard this morning on the radio how do you reach a cost of each injured/sick/dying/dead pelican caused by the BP oil spill? They did what an economist did 30 years ago to read the same figure, ask away in a survey what people would pay to keep that from happening. Of course, the replies were CRAZY! Everything from $1-$10,000 PER pelican. But that is not how they reached the actual figure (anymore). They instead figure out how much it costs to save those same pelicans that CAN be saved. I think it ended up between $500-$750 depending on care etc.

So how much is this tech support worth in the states? California? Florida? Texas? The wages in California, I AM SURE re upper class wages in india, samoa etc. Same as anything based out of NY. But how do you calculate that? How little a person is willing to accept.

While I agree that overseas support is more often than not hard to work with, we have to remember some of those experiences we've had here as well, such as a country boy with a heavy accent who isn't able to understand what we're saying. I regularly get asked more than a few times to respell my email address, apparently, they don't understand the concept of a non-standard email wording for security purposes. A few have even refused to take it because it "sounds fake." But as is true with all centers and services, keep trying until you find someone who's willing to work with you!

Re:Taken advantage of?

[JWSmythe]

You failed to say 'why' and this is absolutely a non-obvious statement. Imagine you're buying strawberries off of the side of the road, adjacent to the farm where they were grown. Now imagine those same strawberries being sold to you on the international space station. Still 'worth that same amount everywhere'? If not with commodities, like food, then why with labor?

    That was a bad argument. Strawberries on the ISS are free to the consumer (the astronaut).

    For tech support, the company looks at the bottom line. I expect the same level of tech support (i.e., good support), regardless of where I call. The average pay for tech support in India is 250,000 INR ($5,400 USD). Average pay for tech support in the US is $42,600. The level of support is lower, but they'll answer the phone and read from a script with the best of 'em, in at least broken English. The land is cheaper to build their office buildings on. The liability is moved off shore (They broke it? Tough. Sue the Indian corp.).

    It's great if you are the corporation, since your profits increase, but it's lowering the satisfaction of your customers. It's all fun and games, until it starts to effect the economy. Eventually due to the outsourcing, companies will find that their consumer base can't afford their products, since they don't have jobs any more. Oh. That's already happened.

    Another friend just found out that his department is going away, probably offshored. Over the last couple years, it's gone from most of the people I know being in the middle to senior levels of companies have found themselves out of work. Only only one has gotten back into real work, and even that is dependent on the survival of the company. Basically it's a "If the company survives, you'll have a great job." That's not the reliability that most of us want or need.

I had a strict schedule for 4 days on the road. Three hours of fucking around with a call center in India was not acceptable. Rather than being done at 11pm, I wasn't finished until 2am. I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me to get to the next site, which didn't happen on time.

There's very little about the call center being in India that lends to your situation. Don't be so bigoted. If they were Americans with the wrong address and in another location you still would have experienced what happens when you don't buffer your travel schedule.

    I guess there's a lot more to explain about it, but it would take a lot more writing. Basically, to get access to the facility, it's all coordinated through the India call center, regardless of which facility it is. It's their job to coordinate between me and the facility to get me in. They wouldn't give me the direct number for the facility. They wouldn't initiate a 3 way call between me and the facility. I specifically asked to talk to someone at the facility, and they wouldn't do it.

    I had allowed for some buffers in the trip, but due to scheduling with all parties it ended up being pretty close. I was suppose to leave their facility, do something else, and then sleep. Pushing the second task off until the next morning really messed things up. It wasn't anything that lost any clients, it just became a pain in the ass. I like to be on time, and get things done on time. A site visit to an established site for our company should be an easy thing. I usually allocate a whole day to a site visit for a new site, because anything and everything will go wrong. Or as I've told people, regardless of how well you plan a new site install, it'll all go wrong. They'll have installed the wrong racks, wrong power, no power, wrong connectivity, and usually take hours to bring connectivity up, even though they assured us it was already up.

Re:Taken advantage of?

[JWSmythe]

While I agree that overseas support is more often than not hard to work with, we have to remember some of those experiences we've had here as well, such as a country boy with a heavy accent who isn't able to understand what we're saying.

    Way back when, I had something similar happen. I was working in tech support for a small hosting provider in 1996. Our office hours were 8am to 6pm Eastern. I would show up late, and frequently work all kinds of ungodly late hours. That's the kind of person I am. Noon to midnight 5 days a week is perfect for me. I was paid on salary, so the bosses didn't mind at all.

    We were a US based company, with primarily US customers, and we only really marketed to US customers. The phone rarely rang after about 8pm, so it gave me a great opportunity to catch up on the support email for the whole department. When the folks came in at 7:30am to 8am, they'd find the support queue just about empty. There were the occasional emails that came in between midnight and 8am, but not many.

    So at about midnight one night, the phone rang. I was just about done with everything so I answered it. It was a nice guy with a very thick accent. He was in New Zealand. He'd tried every day for weeks to get someone on the phone, and never managed to do it. He had gone back and forth with support via email, but the morning folks couldn't figure out his problem. It was a little difficult. I have a plain midwestern type accent. Luckily I watched too much TV as a kid, so I picked up the midwestern accent instead of the local drawl. Since two of the 5 stations we could pick up on the antenna were PBS, I also watched a lot of BBC shows. That gave me a pretty good ear for understanding accents. His accent sounded like a mixture of what Americans know to be Australian from TV and movies, and a deep Southern US drawl. I had to speak a little slowly for him, and sometimes I asked him to repeat things for me, but we got through his problem fairly quickly. Weeks of email versus a few minutes of talking to someone who actually knew what they were doing made a world of difference for him.

    I feel sorry for him, if he has to call an Indian call center now for anything.

Re:Taken advantage of?

[socz]

Thats cool... I think you said something that's SO important but very few care to explore... getting an ear for other accents. I watch a lot of BBC programs (not a lot but whatever comes my way). When I saw Life on mars more than a few years ago now, I was able to hear everything, I just didn't know wtf they were talking about all the time lol. I think I figured out most of what they said, but the stuff i just couldn't were local to their area.

Although generally not a language issues, I regularly hang up on support reps until I get someone who is willing to do what I want (things NOT out of the question of course!).

Recently, I got a $30 credit that was supposed to be in the form of a gift card, which was great because I didn't have to wait another month for it. And then getting a phone replaced through the phone instead of going to a physical store. It was also shipped to me over night. But of course, it isn't as easy at it seems! Why does it have to be this? What happened to the 'customer is always right" OR "deserves the best service possible?"

Re:Taken advantage of?

[JWSmythe]

      Understanding accents has helped me a lot. Since then, I've made friends with people from around the world, and the only time I have to ask them about something they said is when they are talking about something local, or using a phrase I'm unfamiliar with. For example, I was chatting online with a coworker on a project. He didn't believe his English was good enough to talk on the phone, so for the first few years we spoke via chat and email exclusively. He was talking about what he was eating for dinner one night, and told me that he was eating cancer. I asked him to clarify, and he said "like the astrological sign." I thought he meant crabs, and sent him a link to a picture of a crab. He said "no. cancer." and then sent me a link to picture of a crawfish. We don't all call a simple thing like a little crawfish the same thing.

    I guess the difference was, we both wanted to understand each other, and we both had an opportunity to learn.

    I was at a bar around Christmas time. There was a guy from England there (an oddity where I live), with a very thick accent. He was pretty drunk, so no one else could understand a word he said. We had a good time talking, and I had the opportunity to laugh my ass off as he made fun of other people in the bar that couldn't understand a word he said. :) It felt really weird translating English to English for people talking to him though.

What happened to the "customer is always right" OR "deserves the best service possible?"

    Oh, that was replaced several years ago with "protect our bottom line" and "cover your ass".

Re:Too effing bad... sorry.

[mark-t]

Sure, but criminal punishment may not be any sort of consolation... one's privacy has still been compromised and putting the jerk behind bars who broke that doesn't change what happened.

Cam worker

[Anonymous Coward]

It appears shes does a little nude webcam work. Is she so surprised there are nude pictures of her floating around?

http://www.ashcams.com/profile/taritabonita

Need the link to the pics and vide?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://bitchtara.webs.com/ Here is the link to the bitchara site.Scary dancing in the video.

Jealousy rage more like it

[cseg]

I'd bet this is actually a case of jealousy.

My take is that she got jealous that her indian boyfriend fell in love with that blondie, then made all this crap up. Why? You can see a chat window where she was clearly talking to someone she had some sort of love (or at least close) relationship with. "I'm worried about you"? Is that something you'd tell a company's representative "helping" you with a tech problem?

So she got mad that he fell in love with someone else after "making" her send him a laptop, and made all this up.

Re:Jealousy rage more like it

[VJ42]

I'd bet this is actually a case of jealousy.

My take is that she got jealous that her indian boyfriend fell in love with that blondie, then made all this crap up. Why? You can see a chat window where she was clearly talking to someone she had some sort of love (or at least close) relationship with. "I'm worried about you"? Is that something you'd tell a company's representative "helping" you with a tech problem?

So she got mad that he fell in love with someone else after "making" her send him a laptop, and made all this up.

I'm inclined to agree with this, after all her claim that she feels her privacy was "violated" is rather shallow once you see this list of links the woman's more of an exhibitionist than she makes out in the news story.

Re:This FP ifoGr GNAA

[Farmer Tim]

Fail, that picture is now seriously outclassed by the articles.

Wait a minute...

[Anonymous Coward]

How do we know Dell is responsible? Couldn't her boyfriend have uploaded them? Couldn't her machine be infected with something that exposed the pictures?

Re:Wait a minute...

[Otto]

There is more to this story.

http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/tara-fitzgerald-says-dell-technician-downloaded-her-nude-photos-2645780.html

The list is on the refrigerator door

[paiute]

How may rupees is a gallon of eye bleach these days?

Re:Dude...

[ProppaT]

No I'm not. Look at that video of her...

Re:Too effing bad... sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, but criminal punishment may not be any sort of consolation... one's privacy has still been compromised and putting the jerk behind bars who broke that doesn't change what happened.

but others will think it twice before doing the same you ignorant prick.

Re:Too effing bad... sorry.

[mobby_6kl]

But there's nothing one could do about her exposure after the tech submitted the pics.

Well, except maybe not post the story on some of the most read sites of the internet.

Amazing story

[GPLDAN]

He stole her nude pics during a webex session, got her to send him a laptop in the mail, and then set up a website domain calling her - SPECIFICALLY - a bitch.


Mel Gibson has a new hero.

Ya know...

[Der Huhn Teufel]

The "watch video" button has never been less appealing...

Doesn't sound like an innocent victim

[firefly.fairy]

First reading this article I felt bad for this woman. Even sending the guy the laptop, while extremely naive, seemed like something a person might do if they're petrified about their risque pictures appearing online and feel they have no out. Then I linked to the Reno Gazette article. I read this part, and well, she just doesn't seem like some innocent victim who was taken advantage of. I sort of wonder if in the end she actually sent him the nude pictures and then later regretted it when the guy from Indian that she was fantasizing about revealed that he was interested in a new girl:

"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)

Re:Doesn't sound like an innocent victim

[tomhudson]

Someone should send him a plane ticket to the US "to meet his new beloved."

Re:Doesn't sound like an innocent victim

[VJ42]

First reading this article I felt bad for this woman. Even sending the guy the laptop, while extremely naive, seemed like something a person might do if they're petrified about their risque pictures appearing online and feel they have no out. Then I linked to the Reno Gazette article. I read this part, and well, she just doesn't seem like some innocent victim who was taken advantage of.

Indeed, she's computer savvy enough to be a cam whore, so certainly not naive. I think that this story has more to it than the news makes out.

Maybe not.

[Frosty Piss]

This is a simple case of theft and harassment. Jail for the perp,

RTFA. It may not be that simple. The guy works for a call center in India, not Dell in Texas.

Re:Maybe not.

[John Hasler]

> The guy works for a call center in India, not Dell in Texas.

That's India, not China. It may come as a surprise to you to learn that India has laws. Also, the call center just might want to keep Dell's business.

Re:Maybe not.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a fucking moron if you think this guy will have any legal trouble. And he can just move to a different call center. Take off the rose glasses.

Not the actress then...

[MROD]

When I first read the name I thought that maybe the British actress 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:Not the actress then...

[Anonymous Coward]

When I first read the name I thought that maybe the British actress 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?

Sirens - sigh...

Re:Not the actress then...

[chrissharp123]

This has all of the hallmarks of an urban legend - misogynistic and racist stereotypes, unlikely behavior, not much verifiability - I think it's all made up, myself, despite the news story.

Re:Not the actress then...

[VJ42]

This has all of the hallmarks of an urban legend - misogynistic and racist stereotypes, unlikely behavior, not much verifiability - I think it's all made up, myself, despite the news story.

The two people both exist & there are lots of pics of her on the net; here's the reddit link I posted above with a list of links: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/cv888/womans_nudie_pics_are_stolen_from_her_computer_as/?sort=top
The real question is if she's telling the truth.

This woman is a liar.

[Anonymous Coward]

She is a pay-cam-whore. www(dot)ashcams(dot)com/profile/taritabonita

Sounds like a scam to 1) avoid paying her Dell bill 2) get more traffic.

Re:This woman is a liar.

[MaxNomad68]

That's exactly what I was thinking. It was too irrational and too staged, like an outtake of Sandra Bullock in "The Net".

reminds me why...

[hitmark]

telcos used women as operators.

Re:Minimum wage means minimum effort

[AvitarX]

Yes, and the Geek Squad is provably safe with customer files.

There's never been reports of them keeping and trading customer images.

Re:Too effing bad... sorry.

[phantomfive]

the jerk behind bars who broke that doesn't change what happened.

True, but it sure is sweet vindication.

Stupid is, as stupid does

[Tenant129]

I find this story hilarious. I'll never get tired of laughing at people being stupid. Unfortunately society has made it OK to be stupid about computers. The words "I'm not computer savvy" have become like fingernails on a chalk board to me. This woman didn't NEED to be computer savvy, she just needed to not be a complete maroon. The part about a stolen credit card... alright, I'll agree that was messed up and illegal. But the pictures, and sending a laptop... No excuse. Why do we as a society allow people to use their computer ineptitude as an excuse for being taken advantage of, or not getting work done, or damaging company property? It has become acceptable, and this is wrong.

Aw... for a second I thought you meant...

[C A S S I E L]

... Tara Fitzgerald.

My momma always said

[Locke2005]

"Stupid is as stupid does."

in the words of the interwebs

[Anonymous Coward]

pics or it didn't happen

Let me ask you which is more likely

[brunes69]

- That Dell tech would go to the bother and expense of creating a whole website called "bitchtara.com" and domain to post incriminating photos of some random person who happened to call them, in the hopes that they would extort out of her, of all things, a DELL laptop...

- That the woman e-mailed them to her BF or whoever, and the photos made the rounds to someone who dislikes her (heck maybe her ex BF himself, and THEY set up the website.called "bitchtara.com", an obviously personal name, to try to get back at her for some reason.

I vote for #2. This is painfully obviously much ado about nothing and if I was Dell I would be very pissed.

Re:Let me ask you which is more likely

[tuxisthefuture]

A whois lookup of bitchtara.com shows a Creation Date: 30-jul-2010. This supposedly all happened back in 2008?

BREAKING NEWS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Man exploits flaw in system, acts like an asshole! Film at eleven.

Link Please

[Anonymous Coward]

Link Please

This didn't happen.

[synthesizerpatel]

Nobody is this stupid. This is the internet version of calling up the beer company saying you found a dead mouse in a bottle of their product and please send one million dollars to ease the mental anguish.

Also, dude looks like a lady.

Read all of the info

[aarenz]

She was trying to delete the pictures from an email that she had already sent to her boyfriend. I wonder if they are still dating, or if he just posted them in a drunken stupor one night. Dell was not the only one with access to the pictures and there will be little way to trace where the posting came from.

Re:Hoax, anyone?

[stephanruby]

What does it take to have her _not_ trust someone?

Apparently, she didn't trust her own boyfriend. The Indian guy was telling her that her own boyfriend was the one who must have posted those pictures online. So apparently, that's all it takes for her, a random Indian guy from India telling her that her boyfriend is a creep.

In 2008?

[rickb928]

And she sent the laptop?

Sad. She should have called the police. And the police should have called Dell.

Me? Sure, I would send a laptop. What the heck. Does India charge customs fees for incoming gifts?

Re:Too effing bad... sorry.

[mark-t]

The idea I was getting at is to not let it happen in the first place. While I will not ever treat anybody with any less than the same respect I would wish to be treated, I do not *expect* that level of respect from anybody I do not already personally know and have since come to trust. Call me a cynic, but when I have confidential data on a computer, it would be erased before I *EVER* gave somebody I did not so personally know permission to use my computer with the capability of accessing that data.

Re:Hoax, anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Surprise butt-sex?

Re:Minimum wage means minimum effort

[Rix]

And how much are they paid? Not much, if anything, above minimum wage I imagine.

Unbelievable

[JThaddeus]

Some people are just too stupid to be allowed around computers.

She deserved it.

[hellop2]

Personally, I think she deserved it for dancing like this. (incidentally, this link is a cache of the original bitchtara.com website)

If you agree, then mod me up. And if you disagree... well, I'm pretty sure you'll agree.

Re:She deserved it.

[Legion303]

That was the most disturbing thing I've ever seen. Ever.

WTF ??

[Anonymous Coward]

Where are those photos ??

The "benefits" of outsourcing

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been involved in the outsourcing many deparments and entire business divisions to India for a number of large US corporations. Despite some talented people being involved each time, I have never seen a project that has resulted in a good outcome for the clients of these organisations. Its certainly also always been bad news for the US (and the UK where I have also worked).

I was one of the primary reasons I left the IT industry completely and started my own business. The UK alone has lost an estimated 37% of its IT industry jobs to India in the past 36 months. I have never seen figures for the US but given my experience it must be significant (though not close to the losses from the UK I wouldnt imagine)

It also amazes me how many people have credit card details sold on to organised crime via these outsourcing hubs. yet the companies engaging the outsourcing partner do not aggresively seem to pursue the matter. Wait, could it be that greed for the savings of using virtual slave labor rather than local callcentres is over riding corporate conciense? and why dont the UK and US government move to support their IT industries against the competetive threat. In the UK the previous government actually aided the threat to our own industry. Stupidy, lack of awareness or a powerful lobby or all three.

A Few Points...

[pandrijeczko]

1. If you're too stupid to do remove "sensitive" data from your computer & then do a secure erase on the empty disk space before giving it to someone else, that's your problem.

2. If you have naked pictures of yourself on your computer then it's for one of three reasons:

a) You're an attention seeker just waiting for someone to find them & post them publicly anyway,

b) You're planning to make money by selling them, in which case you probably need to get yourself on a training course to get a proper job or get some porno company to do the distribution for you

c) You've set up a deliberate honey-trap to make money from precisely this kind of thing happening.

3. Perhaps if companies didn't have dollar/pound signs in their eyes over outsourcing, they'd vet their employees better & hire people with some honesty & credibility. I fix the PCs of friends & relatives all the time, I know that if I trawled their hard drives I could find stuff they wouldn't want me to see, so I just don't do it.

4. In this woman's case, I don't think she need worry too much as I understand the market for granny porn is very small anyway.

4 Seconds Defines Stupidity...

[pandrijeczko]

...because if she "watched him remove pictures via email" then 4 seconds of holding down the laptop's power button would have stopped him in his tracks.

Naked Lies

[Anonymous Coward]

backtracing...

KING EDIT: Here she is "dancing"? in some sort of bra / lacey black thing... you're welcome?

edit: funny google result while we wait... (She and the Riyaz guy were Facebook friends but he has now deleted or deactivated his profile.)

edit: her facebook and his current facebook (he is friends with another woman who is friends with both him and Tara Fitzgerald)

edit: site was called "bitchtara" and was created Jan. 7 2009 but I can't locate it at the moment; it wasn't a registered domain as "bitchtara" so it must've been on a secondary hosting account or blog host

edit: lol, she was still talking to him and about him earlier this month

edit: here is her myspace page... warning... she is 48. We may not want to continue this search.

edit: her picasa

edit: her email: palomino67@gmail.com

final edit: the site was http://bitchtara.webs.com/ but it is gone and no cache has been located (alxother located the host and screenshot!)

well, it looks like someone has re-uploaded bitchtara to webs.com for her!

Re:Naked Lies

[VJ42]

Reddit already did all that and more.

Surely he 'backed them up' to the Internet

[tuxisthefuture]

Surely he didn't create a site dedicated to exposing her photos - he just placed on on the web so she could easily access them in the future and save more expensive phone calls to tech support firms! I like the quotes from the 'webchats' - the video indicates it was via web cam but who is able to quote word for word what is said on a web cam chat?! If it was a type conversation, there will be logs I would think.

Re:Minimum wage means minimum effort

[PyroMosh]

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 know for sure.

So to answer your question: It is much better than minimum wage, though not nearly what a competent tech can make working in IT for a company, government or school.

Even if the pay's the same in your area, it's tough to imagine much of a worse IT job than Geek Squad. A typical store will have 6 - 20 techs. Murphy's law makes sure that when something goes wrong, it will never be the person responsible for it that has to explain it to an angry customer.

The end result is that BBY doesn't get to pick the top talent from the labor pool. Those who are smarter / more professional / more ethical / etc will of course look elsewhere.

I'm in no way saying that there aren't good people in Geek Squad, but there are a lot of folks that aren't because BBY doesn't pay enough to be picky.

I just need to know one thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

... where the fuck is a link to the nudes ? ;) :)

+1 Informative

[Rix]

Thanks :)

put the pinch on their wallet

[proudhawk]

Since dell either doesn't seem to care or has decided not to act (because its cheaper), I have a suggestion. STOP BUYING DELL PRODUCTS! if enough people do this, it will get their attention in a way they can't avoid.