Did Dell tech support display woman's naked pics?

Strange things can happen when you call tech support.

But perhaps not quite as strange as what allegedly happened to Tara Fitzgerald. According to News10 in Sacramento, Calif., Fitzgerald wanted to send some pictures of herself to her boyfriend, but she couldn't find them on her Dell computer.

Her urgent need to find these pictures drove her, quite naturally, to call Dell tech support. Her call was answered, she said, by a gentleman in Mumbai, India, named Riyaz Shaikh.

Shaikh, who, by the time you finish this tale, might not turn out to be a gentleman, after all, offered to remotely access her computer so that he could find the pictures for her. Fitzgerald said she watched him as he located her snapshots.

It was another fine day in the helpful history of tech support. However, this success was ruined somewhat, when Fitzgerald allegedly received an e-mail from an unidentified source telling her that her pictures were now freely available for anyone to see on the Web. They were on a site called "bitchtara."

Perhaps I omitted to mention that many of these pictures depicted Fitzgerald in the nude. And the Web site, as well as clearly violating her privacy, unfortunately offered lewd descriptions of her proclivities that were not in line with reality.

When Fitzgerald contacted Shaikh again, he suggested that it was, indeed, her boyfriend who had created the site, and he allegedly offered to help take it down. He needed, though, a laptop on which he could work on this vexing problem from home, she said. So--and this is a very painful part of the story--she shipped him one.

"My conscience is talking to me, saying, 'Tara, don't send this. Are you crazy?' I sent it anyway," she told News10. This part of the tale occurred in January 2009. This is particularly notable, given that the site featuring her pictures was still active, News10 reported, as of last Wednesday.

Indeed, Fitzgerald claimed that her repeated attempts to solve this problem through official channels, both through Dell and the police, were entirely unsuccessful. It was only by turning to the media, she said, that she managed to finally get Dell's attention.

In the intervening period between sending the computer to India and this week, Fitzgerald discovered that Shaikh had allegedly used her credit card details to spend $802 on a computer and router for a woman in Tennessee.

Finding no way to reverse the alleged evildoings, Fitzgerald said she maintained contact with Shaikh through his personal e-mail account and his official Dell account. As late as this week, she said, he was still offering to pay for the charges and, she believed, still working for Dell.

However, once News10 contacted Dell, it received the following reply: "We investigated the issue, which involved a technical representative at one of Dell's vendors. We contacted the vendor about the allegation and can confirm that the representative no longer handles Dell calls. We've been in contact with Ms. Fitzgerald regarding this issue and continue to investigate her claims to best assist in a resolution."

One can, of course, accuse Fitzgerald of some considerable naivete in this matter. She had to break the whole story this week to her 14-year-old daughter. However, it seems that if her allegations are, indeed, substantiated by the facts that News10 says it has at its disposal, she might deserve some considerable restitution from Dell itself.

Tech support is a powerful position. It does give those occasionally supercilious anonymous voices at the end of a telephone, whether in India or elsewhere, peculiar access to people's inner workings.

Fitzgerald's accusations suggest that the inner workings of one or two people in tech support might deserve closer examination too.

[cosuna]

Yeah right.... you ask someone for help on finding your nude pictures of her...

Then that same guy is sent a laptop to counter the problem, and somehow uses a credit card to make purchases.

I think this story is bad to the bone... and that girl needs help....

[Random_Walk]

...the cute ones are always dumb?

*shrug*

Can't cure stupid, I guess.

[sanenazok]

The poor woman: "I believed he was going to protect my DIGNITY." Some dude in India that is looking for free money and gifts isn't looking out for anyone's dignity, not even his own. I'm sure she'll get a nice settlement from Dell, surprised she had to go to the media, but given how hard it's to get these people to escalate technical questions, it's not that surprising.

[DatabaseDoctor]

Yes, the woman needs to wake up and grow up.

But, as a long time Dell fan who is worried about their future....

PLEASE BRING ALL OF YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE BACK INTO THE U S A , DELL!!!!

Enough of this crud! when I buy my laptop, desktop, server from an American company I want American support! I want my money to go to Americans in America earning a decent wage so that my country can succeed and grow!

I CAN'T STAND OVERSEAS CUSTOMER SUPPORT! There is little caring about our well being from these people as we're half a world away. We're not of their culture... mostly, they just don't care.

I know Dell brought some top level support back into the US, but we want ALL of it back!

Whew! I feel better!

[in2b8me]

Frankly the whole story sounds fishy. She can?t find her nude pics. The nude pics that are also in her email? So she calls tech support for help. They find them. Copy them. Then delete the original files? So that she subsequently says ?the pics were missing?? Then the pics appear on a webpage? So she enlists the help of the SAME guy from before to help her? And sends him a laptop? And gives him her credit card number?

And now this story is getting circulated all over because americans hate outsourcing tech support. IF the story is true then this level of personal incompentence would have been eventually exploited in ANY country. And if the story is not true or if there are carefully omitted details, you know this website will get ALOT of hits

[ckh1272]

@in2b8me--It doesn't sound fishy at all. I have seen (on many occasions) photos scattered all over the place (tied to the program that downloaded them from a camera or phone). On one system. I found six different places where photos were residing. The person had gone through four cameras over two years. Each one came with software to "organize and edit your photos". That may be why this lady could not find them. Sounds a little extreme to cll tech support over it but it happens. The tech support guy should be prosecuted for this mess plain and simple. Not everything is some grand conspiracy as you seem to insinuate.

[ze_iceman]

Thats all well and good. But you do know that your computers are made in China? The company should think as you do :)

[Mangolite]

No matter where the service is, if the other end is malicious and you're naive enough to let them do this to you, you're screwed. I made a phone call to tech support long ago and the tech person was rude and incredulous of not helping resolving the problem I have at hand. After what supposedly being transferred to the manager, I got hung up. Lucky for me, when I called back, the same person answered and in the background, I can hear his goons laughing about the case, needless to say, I silence their little game by reprimanding the end receiver that their customer service sucked and sure enough, the manager came on quick and profusely apologized.

[grizzled82]

@ in2b8me

she didn?t ask to find nude pics, she ask for other pics. the ******. probably waited till she was not using the computer and remotely accessed it again with out here knowledge and searched her files and found the nude pics. and unfortunately we can?t do nothing to this guys since he lives in india, but we can sue dell since it was there outsourced company that hired him.

Thank the republicans for letting the out sourcing of our jobs get way to out of hand. and they say the latinos are stealing our jobs when in fact your high paying job just went to another country that can pay their employees pennies on the dollar. we need our politicians (republican and democrat) to stop these big business practices and bring back our jobs.

[mathmeister]

@DatabaseDoctor

If you don't want your tech support to be outsourced to India (or anywhere else), and instead be serviced by Americans "earning a decent wage", then I suggest you stop buying the cheapest possible stuff you can find. No more shopping around on price. Instead buy from companies that don't outsource and be prepared to pay for it because it will cost more--a lot more. How much more? Wages in India--at least for programmers, which I'm familiar with--are about 1/8th of what they are in the U.S. This means you'll have to pay 8 times what you paid for your Dell tech support. Exactly how much this would add to the cost of your computer, I'm not sure, but it would be significant.

[AlSleet]

This is not a matter of their culture. They have those jobs because Dell decided they didn't want to pay Americans to do this work. And trust me the general attitude they project is the attitude their emloyer instructs them to project.

[tg_iv]

Mattmeister, I'm familiar with technical support costs, and the cost of support in India provides nowhere near the savings on a per unit basis that most people believe. Support costs in India typically last longer and their first call resolution is usually lower. The bottom line is that companies pay less per minute of support, but they pay for more minutes. There's also additional travel, training, customer satisfaction issues etc. that companies who offshore experience. The actual average cost to support a case for a PC tech issue in India is ~ $5. In the U.S., it's ~ $8.50. Let's say there are 3 cases/unit sold over the warranty period of a average PC (which would be very high). That's less than $10. The public needs to decide if that's a lot of money.

[mathmeister]

@tg_iv: Thanks for the info. As I said, I'm familiar with developers--not tech support, and it doesn't surprise me that they are not completely comparable. I can say that some of the issues you talk about (extra training, travel, and some cultural/language issues) are relevant with developers as well. However, at a 1 to 8 price differential, if an Indian developer takes 4 times as long to write some code at acceptable quality, it's still a major savings, even with the extra overhead.

On the other hand, back to tech support: The problem is that a consumer in the U.S. that is looking at two virtually identical computers will buy the one that is $10 cheaper without thinking about tech support. With the amount of competition in the PC industry, this will always drive manufacturers to find any cost savings they can. Consumers could drive these decisions if they are willing to ask about it and are willing to pay those extra $10, but most won't even think about it. They will just complain on the back end. The only way the manufacturer could drive the decision is if they make a strategic move to build a brand around quality and service, but I think that's a niche market. Most consumers only think about price and nothing else.

[prema253]

well to, i agree with in2b8me cuz its just too fishy..
and as far as him accessing her computer again remotely, i swear dont you have firewalls, etc.
okay and if the pics WERE on the email, how did he get on.. i mean generally speaking, many people log outta there email.
third. WHY THE **** WOULD U CALL DELL TECH SUPPORT TO LOOK FOR NUDE PICS it doesnt make any frickin sense. "Yeah i need help looking for my nude pics"...
one thing that doesnt make sense is how did she come across the site with her pics on it? i never really understood that part.

another thing.. after coming across the site she still insists on sending the dude a little gift. really...
now im indian myself.. no doubt, nad yeah majority people in india wouldnt consider doing that. (stealing privacy) so please don insult other indians (if any of you have, havent read all the posts, sooo..)

but going back to this lady. my question is why did she freak out so much that she had to call tech-support.it just doesnt make sensefirst she would try her hardest to find it (i think she had vista on her computer)and if that failed she would well NOT call tech support. besides they were pics. she could reatake them again anyways, not a big deal..

now i would like to end my beautiful (lol) rant with something religious to keep the seriousness in teact.

Maybe this is a message from God, saying (in my own lingo) "If you people want to do **** like that, do it, but its your loss.. you are bound by hte material nature and its laws.. nad youwill be paid in full for everything you do, good or bad.

one more question guys.. WHY TAKE HELP OF THE MEDIA????why not go to a lawyer, and keep it small.. now everyone in america knows that fitzgeral or whatever has nude pics nad all nad well it just seems like media attention grab for a couple of days?

[sciontcya]

Pictures are the beginning.
This will come back and bite us on the collective arse.
No way around it.

[davoxdipueblo]

no common sense

[Highlander7500]

Dell was one of the first tech companies to outsource, then offshore their customer service. I live in Austin which had the Dell tech support call center. That trend and the continued offshoring of tech support and tech jobs has done nothing but shave pennies and earn huge dollars for Michael Dell and his exec team...and continue to dismember a vibrant tech community in the US. Yes, Michael Dell, who just paid a huge fine to the Feds...and other tech companies need to bring these jobs back to the US.

[DarkFlam3]

This sort of thing isn't unique to Dell or India... if everyone remembers, the Geek Squad did a very similar thing right in America. They are making it seem like it is because they outsourced (which I in no way support as someone who has done some IT myself) that THAT is where the issue is.

Again, I don't support giving jobs away to other countries because it's cheaper - but at the same time - focus on what's going on at home as well =/ Either way, that's just completely sick.

But why would she send an IT guy a laptop >.>

[palomino1967]

she send it coz he make her believed he cant work in the issue (website) with dell computer and he was very worry about this side showing in Russia and he don't have one but the way this is heberto tara boyfriend who was the contact for this website (you guys have no clue what is coming you only know 20% of this story

[tg_iv]

U.S. employees are certainly not perfect. The key difference is that if this guy was in the U.S., he would fall under the purview of U.S. law enforcement. The same is true for any other crimes of fraud, etc. The small amount of money saved by offshoring also offloads a ton of control over your corporate image.

[mediocrates--2008]

Any sympathy I had for this woman shipped out with that laptop. Seriously! Stupidity has consequences.

[n_djinn]

I feel bad for the woman, but I figure her errors in judgment started long before this event.

[4score20]

She definitely exercised very poor judgment (OMG, she's a parent!) but it doesn't give the Dell tech "support" worker the right to take advantage of her. If we're going to excuse predatory behavior by one human against another then we should just give up on this "civilization" experiment altogether.

[davoxdipueblo]

It would be funny if the guy did not only helped her find the pics. But also the lady gave him the username

and password for her email so he can upload them and send them to the ladys boyfriend.

Then again let ask one question. How in the world did the guy get the credit card # and exp. date of the

card ( I imagine security # on the back too ) I dont think tech support abroad has any of that info.

[grizzled82]

if she made any online transactions and saved the recept and/or any bank statments. rember this is an IT guy who knows ins and outs of computers, and maybe hacking too. this info was most likely on her laptop, so he just hacked it and stole the CC info. this is why no one is safe if they are online. being offline is the safest way to compute.

[jorart1]

She probably had all that info stored in the laptop she sent him... And maybe more naked pictures :S

[brief]

Reminds me of the "celebrity sex scandal" out of Hong Kong a couple of years ago. A Hong Kong celeb took his laptop to a computer repair shop for service, and the photos he had stored in there of him and various other Hong Kong celebs having sex were leaked onto the Internet.

[alegr]

Write to your representative and ask them to introduce a law, that if your customer support call is handled in a country that doesn't have privacy laws similar to US, the call must have a disclaimer played in the beginning: "this call may be handled in a country that doesn't provide privacy protections". This will be a good incentive to the companies to use US-based call centers.

[AndroidFTW]

Seen one seen them all...
Some just have bigger Gee-Bees than another.

[ckh1272]

So are you partaking in illegal activity. Is that what you are trying to say?

[etnav382]

Those pictures of her aren't even that great and she's not a real looker neither.

[Toa73000]

I purchase a computer from an American company and I pay them in Dollars. Why a foreign Indian has to answer my calls when I call the tech support? Don't charge first class north american prices and in return gives us unreliable and poor quality Chinese hardware and Indian software and support. China and India are getting natural resources from north america for a cheap price, take the jobs away from us and add to their own job force, over time steal the technology and know how from us, covert the natural resources they got from us to products using the knowledge they stole from us and then sale it to us and take our money. Soon we in Canada and U.S. will be the third world and they will be the next super powers.

[nixermac]

Top $$$ for a Dell? wait a second. You are buying a cheap computer, manufactured in China. Obviously it is supported from India. What else is outsourcing? The day the business guys figured that we Americans sit on our fat ***** and want top $$$ for an hours job whereas they could outsource to a skinny dude in China and India, they took the job there. Now we have to move our fat ***** and do jobs that we do not like. Who do you think is the stupid guy here.

I can't imagine that Tara was so stupid. But then that is what a computer geek would do if asked for some idiotic help. LOL. Serves the lady.

[KingOfTheJungle]

welcome to America; buddy

[ckh1272]

@Toa73000--Remember, it was an American company that brought that work to places like India and China. Of course, in time, that will change too when those workers realize they should be making more money. It is already happening, slowly but surely.

[TechDevil]

@Toa73000: Obviously, you seem like an ignorant fool!...NOTHING much is made in AMERICA nowadays fool!... Besides, do you really think that our country is still some kind of super power?..There is no such thing!..We are out there fighting wars because "AMERICA" is scared the **** out of other countries' development...Note to self, there is more to outsourcing, importing and trade than what meets the eye. In reality, they did not steal "our" technology. Whatever that is. They just had the ingenuity and creativity to make their own that works. So, if you want pure "AMERICAN" support, go get a MAC, tear it apart and bring it to their service center, IF you can afford it.

[djseeram]

"first class north american prices" - a lot of electronics, including computers, are at their cheapest prices in the US.
"natural resources from north america for a cheap price" - really?

[1111mann]

I seriously Hope that others will come forward that have had this exposure to this privacy abuse.most of all Tara Needs a lawyer NOW. someone needs to help her. the Tara fitzgeralds of this world need protection from all types of insane predators. I KNOW her and she is more trusting than she can afford to be . Trust -, many times affords a chance to manipulate another unsuspecting victim. Please get her a lawyer.
Thank you Suzanne DAY


for

[Jack K1]

You want to protect Tara from "insane predators" AND you want her to get a lawyer? You're too funny!

[nixermac]

Tara fitzgeralds of this world need protection from all types of insane predators.

Are you stupid or what? It was Tara who invited trouble. She calls the tech support to find her nude photos and when those photos are seen online, she is jumping over it. What gives dude?

[AndroidFTW]

They used to say , to prevent an accident...think of Bea Arthur...
Now they say think of Joy Behar !

[AndroidFTW]

Put on flashdrive...turn off shadow copy ! Encrypt !

[Magicland]

There's a LOT more to this story that hasn't been told. Tara Fitzgerald was sending love emails back and forth to this guy in india. She also masturbates nude online for money (http://www.ashcams.com/profile/taritabonita). Sort of hard to win any sort of case based on people exposing your nude pictures, when you're selling yourself nude online already.