“I worked for Best Buy 285 several years ago (2003-2005) and was both a Blackshirt and an Agent once the Geek Squad rolled out.
At my store, searching and copying files was not a common practice at all. We were the good guys of the district. One day, however, a gorgeous woman walked in with her computer complaining of her PC locking up when she went to use her webcam. She refused to give us her website so we knew something was up. She authorized us to do a tune-up to remove unneeded files and update her to SP2. During the cleanup process, we saw that her Norton Protected Recycle Bin was consuming 12gigs of files. It was password protected…but she used the same password as her windows login (which users provide on one of the thousand forms they fill out when they drop the PC off).
Once we got into the recycle bin, we realized it was entirely filled with naked pictures and movies. It turns out that this young woman was a pornstar named Jasmine Grey (link safe for work)”
I left for the day and came back the next day to find that one of our fellow employees had copied all of the files to a few dvd’s and shared them with management, as well as most of the other techs.Her webcam was still locking up her machine when she took her computer home that night, so she returned again in the morning. She still wouldn’t provide us with her site (not that we needed it anyway at that point), but she did want to look into purchasing a new machine. At this point I handed her off to a PCHO rep who proceeded to convince her that instead of buying a new machine…she should just have an Agent come out to fix it at her house (that way she “could rest easy that her privacy would be assured”). The manager on duty at the time was involved in the scam, so he offered to send an Agent out for free to “go the extra mile and insure she only shop at Best Buy in the future” Of course, the Agent that came out to her house was none other than the same person who copied all her files to DVD. He fixed the webcam in a few minutes then spent the entire remainder of the appointment scouring her network for more porn, which he saved to a portable hard drive. Those files were then shared across the store.
The sad part is that she passed away in a car crash only days later which quickly formed rainclouds over everyone’s perverted parade.
So how about that? Not only did the techs steal porn from a customer…they forfeited the revenue from a new computer AND from an on-site visit for the sole purpose of getting more porn.
I left the company 3 weeks later.
We didn’t think these stories could get any sleazier or disgusting. We obviously underestimated the Geek Squad.
PREVIOUSLY:
VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer’s Computer
How To Make Your Computer Catch People Stealing Your Porn
Why Geeks Steal Porn From Your Computer
Good solid plan
Its times like this I think… well if they got away I would have never to gotten to hear the ‘good’ endings to these kinda stories.
You know where the porn they harvest value triples on her death etc etc etc.
No sympathy from me when sleaze attracts sleaze duh
Morons. They had the idiocy to say, “We’ll do this for you for free” just to download porn from her house? If they were gonna be stupid, they could have at least gotten paid to be stupid.
I guess I’m the only one who thought “oh shit” at the part where they were offering to come to her house for free after knowing she did nude pictures or porn. Some people don’t hesitate to think it’s no big deal to commit violence on someone because “she sucked d***k.”
And who allows a stranger into their house to do repairs or whatever and leaves the room?? Uh no.
BestBuy as of late has been showing itself to be a little underhanded but I have seen this kind of activity in almost every computer repair shops. The car accident part in the story was totally unneeded as it had nothing to do with BestBuy or it’s creepy behavior. I think throwing that in is just going for unqualified sympathy which I think is just as wrong as ripping off porn from a customers computer. I have been a computer technician for many years and I have seen just about everything on customers computer but I do not think it is appropriate to take anything off their systems. It’s like being a auto mechanic, you would never think it’s ok to take parts off their engine or steal their audio deck why would taking porn or programs off a customers system be ok. Wrapping things up I just have to shake my head in disgust at what some of my fellow brother in the technical industry have done, but thankfully their are still a few who think as i do that anything on a customer’s system is sacred and should be treated as such.
You’d think they’d know better after three months ago, a 22-year-old woman and her mother sued Best Buy and its “Geek Squad” computer repair team for dispatching a technician who filmed the daughter taking a shower (using his cell phone).
I know it’s Geek Squad and they are well known, but why does every article with PORN in the title have a “digg it?” It just further supports the idea that these articles are just sensational digg-friendly posts to get attention.
It’s worked!
If the guy who saw all this stuff really saw it, why didn’t he report it? There was a BB forcing people to buy service plans with their computers, everyone in that department who participated, including a manager, was thrown out the door for it. If these people were really stealing data then they would have their jobs taken from them as well.
I am willing to bet money that this guy who reported it was one of the guys laughing and giggling as they looked at the pictures.
who gives a shit? Why would you throw in the part about her death? Quit making it sound like geek squad had an effect on her death.
Image via h.andras_xms. The Geek Squad has been known for their file-rifling, porn-stealing issues for a while (thanks to Consumerist).