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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."

24 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Let me be the first to say by Mirey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    lol

    1. Re:Let me be the first to say by ottothecow · · Score: 4, Insightful
      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

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    2. Re:Let me be the first to say by drunkennewfiemidget · · 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.

    3. Re:Let me be the first to say by iamhassi · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "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.

      --
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  2. Well by mark72005 · · Score: 4, 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.

    1. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://bitchtara.webs.com

  3. Story is so absurd by jeffmeden · · Score: 3, 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

    1. Re:Story is so absurd by pudding7 · · Score: 3, Interesting

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

  4. Re:Ha! by h4rm0ny · · 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.

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  5. So.... by axl917 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Pics still up?

    1. Re:So.... by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 3, Funny

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

  6. Unfortunately by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

  7. Should the website really be called by oldmac31310 · · Score: 3, Funny

    stupidbitchtara?

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    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  8. If true... by Antony+T+Curtis · · Score: 4, 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.

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  9. This just in... by new+death+barbie · · Score: 3, 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.

    --

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  10. Re:Ha! by blair1q · · 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!

  11. Re:Ha! by TheLink · · Score: 4, Funny

    They still haven't fixed his keyboard?

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  12. Here's the problem by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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  13. Re:Too effing bad... sorry. by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

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  14. The list is on the refrigerator door by paiute · · Score: 3, Funny

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

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  15. Re:It's Obvious by brainboyz · · Score: 3, Funny

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

  16. Re:Ha! by osu-neko · · 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.

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  17. Doesn't sound like an innocent victim by firefly.fairy · · Score: 5, Informative
    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)

  18. Re:Ha! by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.