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Verizon Worker Arrested For Copying Customer's Nude Pictures

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-to-start-punishing-this dept.

An anonymous reader writes "El Reg reports that two employees at a Verizon store in Florida are facing charges after making copies of a woman's naked pictures while helping her transfer data from an old phone to a new one. The two employees later offered to show the pictures to another customer, but the customer happened to be the woman's friend. The woman and her friend filed a police report. The police quickly got a warrant to search the store and found copies of the pictures on multiple devices there. One of the employees, Gregory Lampert, was arrested and charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor. The other employee, Joshua Stuart, is no longer in Florida, but will face charges if he comes back."

17 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. Can you see me now? by retroworks · · Score: 5, Funny

    can you see me now?

    --
    Gently reply
    1. Re:Can you see me now? by Columcille · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The customer wanted the employees to copy data from her phone to her phone. Looking at that data didn't have to happen. Copying pictures from her phone to a personal phone - particularly naked pictures - certainly violated trust and evidently some laws. Going on to redistribute those stolen pictures to other people without the knowledge of the original person pushes it even farther. The part that's nuts in all this is you thinking their actions were okay.

      --
      I love my sig.
  2. durrrr by aurashift · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is stupid and pervy overall, but offering to show it to another CUSTOMER? Can't get much dumber than that.

    1. Re:durrrr by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is a reason Fark has a Florida tag.

  3. Two Felonies! by SternisheFan · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Copying customer's pictures to his own device - Wrong on so many levels.

    Unwittingly admitting your crime to the customer's friend and getting himself charged with two felonies - Priceless!

    1. Re:Two Felonies! by nurb432 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have to disagree on the first part, as often times techs will bring their own hardware to a site and copy all the customers files of in preparation for a reload. "please save my pictures and music" ( or in a business, CAD files, or whatever ) as no one ever backs up...

      I have done it many a time over the last couple of decades, both raw files or a disk image. I always would bring a desktop before laptops, then a laptop, and now just a 2.5" usb drive, incase they dont have a DVD recorder or anything, and of course something to boot off of to avoid viruses. ( as technology advances so does what i carry with me ).

      However, i dont look thru them, and they are deleted before i leave the site.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  4. Nothing new by nurb432 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately this has been going on since the early days of personal computers. Take your PC in for repair, and often times the 'techs' would scour your drive ( or floppies ) looking for 'cool stuff'. 'Cool stuff" could be anything from hoping they find porn and be fairly harmless ( since back then it wasn't as 'free' ) or in more current times, far more malicious and they may search for your bank records or something to blackmail you with later..

    Lesson: Trust no one.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:Nothing new by BeanThere · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I had a female friend who accidentally shared naked photos (showing everything) of herself with me (and publicly) on Facebook. She was trying to create an account for only her boyfriend to see, but not being very computer-literate, screwed up the privacy settings and publicly exposed some obviously very private photos. I immediately just politely and discretely informed her that these photos were visible, and how to fix it. For my effort, she immediately decided I was some kind of creep, blocked me, and never spoke to me again. Cow. But at least I did the right thing, I think.

    2. Re:Nothing new by cyborg_zx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You did the right thing. Calling you a creep and blocking you is merely deflecting her own stupidity outwards so she doesn't have to deal with it.

  5. pics by eWarz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pics or it didn't happen.

  6. Use a company-owned device by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Copying customer's pictures to his own device - Wrong on so many levels.

    I have to disagree on the first part, as often times techs will bring their own hardware to a site and copy all the customers files of in preparation for a reload. "please save my pictures and music" ( or in a business, CAD files, or whatever ) as no one ever backs up...

    A tech should use a company-owned device for that, not a personal device, and treat all backed-up data as confidential.

    However, i dont look thru them, and they are deleted before i leave the site.

    So you follow at least some good practices for confidentiality of customers' data. Customers should insist that this practice be written into the terms of service.

    1. Re:Use a company-owned device by corychristison · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I've had bad luck in this department, one company always said they would always provide me with what I needed, but every time I asked for the proper tool, I never got it. This business was of reasonable size, 7 locations across 3 provinces. Total staff was around 55-60 people. One example, I was in need of a new coax compression termination tool, and they kept telling me to use the screw on ends. Their honest reason behind it was that we could cut them off later and reuse if we had to :-/. While they do work, I always had a hard time with them. Risking shorting out equipment was not something I wanted to do.

      Now I run my own business and do my best to separate work from business, but costs wise is tough. A lot of my equipment i owned before i started up, buying a second laptop at this stage in my business is a cosr issue, but on my list of things to sort out before i incorporate. Confidentiality agreements are key here though. I do web design and web app development, so its less of an issue than dealing with their machines directly, qith direct access to their personal information.

  7. Re:A special kind of stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's more than just having naked pictures of a woman. It's about having naked pictures of *someone specifically.*

    It's a power thing. Even if you don't intend to wield that power against that person.

  8. Re:Stupid is as stupid does... by fermion · · Score: 5, Insightful
    False analogy. First, most people unlock phones and if you give it to a service person it is under the understanding that they are to help, not steal data.

    Second, as Bruce Schneier argues in his latest book, Liers and Outliers, society functions on the assumption that most people are honest, and so we don't have to waste a lot of time on excessive sucurity. For example, if we extend the coffe shop example, if you don't always have you car in a secured garage with armed patrol, it is your fault if it gets stolen? I think so, based on the example.

    These people got fired because they violated the assumption of trust that Verizon depends on to grow it's business. If I am worried that Vernon reps are primarily there to stea personal data, I will go elsewhere. The fact that the personal data is nude pics is a judgemental viewpoint that has more to do with the confort Jon's own body than the issue at hand.

    Tomorrow I will see all these people in these large building just leaving thier cars in unprotected oparking lots, letting thier children run around without proper supervision, letting the public in with no security. I suppose if something happens it will be thier fault, not the malice of the perpetrators. I would hate to live in the world where one is afraid of everything.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  9. Re:A special kind of stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not a joke, it's as bad as breaking into someone's home. The guy who is out of state should be tracked down and charged for the same crime. Make examples of these miscreants and let the people who smoke dope out. This country has such a fucked up value system.

  10. Re:A special kind of stupid. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do you think celebrity sex tapes, even the ones who are not all that hot and where the image is just a grainy out of focus night vision shot that shows you almost nothing, are so popular?

    People seem to like seeing porn, even bad porn, of people they know. Even if they only know them through the TV.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  11. Re:A special kind of stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's more than just having naked pictures of a woman. It's about having naked pictures of *someone specifically.*

    It's a power thing. Even if you don't intend to wield that power against that person.

    Ahh, the local AC feminazi speaks, and gets +5 Insightful. Sorry, but you're wrong, it's got nothing to do with having "power". That's a BS idea some man-haters came up with some years back and have been promoting from time to time.
    The real answer is that it's about taboo. It's about seeing what isn't "supposed" to be seen. It's why people find it more exciting to catch a glimpse of the "girl next door" naked than to see a porn star naked. Same thing here.