DSL Reports has the story of an outsourced Comcast tech was fired after bragging online about using internal Comcast systems to get vengeance on hackers disrupting his Xbox. After annoying little twerps intentionally overloaded his Xbox with data (known as packet flooding), Mark Ribeiro, who describes himself as a “Comcast tier 2.5 support agent, which essentially means im one of the top 1% elitest agents,” went to work. First he identified one of the perps and found out he was a Comcast customer. Then he looked up the kid’s info in the Comcast support system and called the kid’s father…
After telling the father that his son was involved in illegal activities and it would result in their internet getting shut off for a week, Mark writes on the halo3forums he heard “the father began to yell at his son, i then heard a loud smack, and then sobbing, and then cracking noise as if something was breaking..it then occured to me that the father had just beat the sh.t out of his kid, and the cracking noise was the sound of a hammer on an xbox.” Comcast says it has identified the employee who violated the users privacy to an epic level and told Convergys to fire him. As anyone who read our insider post, “Convergys Call Center Sucks Because Agents Are Stabbing Each Other And Making Out In The Halls,” Comcast and Covergys are renowned discerning employers of classy lads. As an added bonus, here’s a picture DSL Reports acquired of Mark toking on a bong:
**(UPDATED)To Those of YOU who packet flood…be aware [halo3forums]
Outsourced Comcast Tech Gets Vengeance On Xbox Cheaters – But in the process abuses Comcast support systems, violating user privacy… [DSLReports]
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@Raziel66: For gods’ sake, you think the DEA will raid your workplace because you’ve viewed a picture of a guy bonging?
Change your panties, because I’m pretty sure they’re damp now.
Vengeance like that is worth losing your job.
I think what he did was wrong. yes but taught that smart little asshole a lesson did it not. don’t be a dick and you won’t get dicked.
The thing he got fired for wasn’t for calling the kid’s dad, it was for bragging about it and privacy violations. If tech support dude hadn’t burned out his braincells on weed and kept his cool, he could have kept his job.
The big issue is the dad abusing his kid possibly.
@dorkins: Even better
I really don’t see much wrong with what the employee (or ex-employee?) did. There are many other far worse things this guy could have done… Consider the following:
1. If he can find out a telephone number, he can also get the kid’s address. He could have paid a visit to the family and caused some rather serious problems that way.
2. If he had friends in other Comcast departments, he could have really frustrated the family. Depending upon who he knew, he may have been able to get their service disconnected, order (or at least get them billed for) premium services and pay-per-view stuff that they never ordered (imagine the problems this could cause)… maybe even created problems with their credit record (I assume that once you’re so far past due on a bill Comcast will turn you in to a collection agency, right?)
3. I assume he had (or had access to) the appropriate tools to create some nasty problems with their cable connection…
Faced with these options, all he did was call the parents and inform them that their little brat was doing nasty things with his toys. That seems rather harmless to me– and may have even been a favor to others, since I doubt he was the only one this little brat was bothering.
Personally I applaud this guy’s actions. The only person whose actions I like better are the father’s. Beat the living snot out of the kid, then smash his little toy. Hopefully that will teach his little brat a lesson he won’t soon forget.
@arstal: In today’s society we’re too weak on our kids and don’t punish them enough.
Done something bad? Well, well naughty boy… go to timeout and sit on your naughty stool for 5 minutes. That’s the most retarded concept I’ve ever heard.
What’s wrong with a little paddling every now and then when your child misbehaves? We used to to do it our schools and it used to be acceptable at home, but now that some little namby pamby bleeding heart liberals tell us that it’s a bad thing to do we avoid it like the plague.
No wonder we have a society of witless freaks who are afraid of war, offending anyone, and things that go bump in the night. No wonder we have a society where patriotism is laughed at, and it’s OK for a presidential candidate to refuse to wear an American flag label pin or place his hand on heart in respect. No wonder we continue to lose a national identity as people call themselves a “whatever-hyphenated”-American instead of just a plain American.
Now, this kid probably doesn’t deserve to be physically beaten, but he does deserve some paddling. And he does deserve to have his Xbox taken away from him. I’ll admit, though, that it probably wasn’t the brightest idea to smash it– if I were the father I’d have taken it away from him and sold it on eBay instead. There’s not much sense in smashing something into pieces when you can at least get a little money for it. Either way the kid is punished…
Looks like the one who will get owned is the Comcast contractor who, in the end, might have more trouble than just not having a job. I see paying for a new Xbox and a bout of community service in his near future.
@Trai_Dep: The DEA won’t do a thing here since the Comcast peon is in Canada.
the kid got what he deserved and the so did the tech for bragging about it. The kid probably will never cheat online again and that guy won’t brag about doing illegal activities again.
Hahah oh wow. Pwned?
Also, using your power to pick on the weak is just wrong.
A little funny to see a cheater punished. But he shouldn’t have step across that border of customer trust. He basically gave up his job for vengeance. When he could have tried to go about addressing this through the proper means. Now this family has a case against him and comcast.
But if you have to get back at someone at least be sneaky about it. Which is hard to do yourself without getting you self in the same trouble the person that offended you did. Best to just try and log the attack if your equipment allows and report it proper like they loose there account and you get vengeance and no laws were broke though admittedly harder to pull off as you probably are not always logging traffic to idetify the IP origin of the attack. But even reporting the user will eventually work as I’m sure you are not the only one this kid pulled that crap with.
@LionelEHutz: Aww, hell, CANADA?! Jeez, the police will probably show up just so they can smoke some too. Meant in a good way, of course.
What the worker did was 100% morally right. That kid deserved to get the sh*t beaten out of him. Hell, I will help. Hackers are criminals and should be burned at the stake.
Too bad the hero got fired. But it’s comcast. And everybody knows that Comcast is a front for crime.
@BimmerConsumerist: Yeah, because lying to get us in a war that murders over 4,000 servicemen, millions of Iraqis and steals $3 trillion from unborn children is perfectly excusable if you wear a shiny US flag on your lapel.
It’s “patriots” like yourself that have enabled turning the US into being an indebted, second-rate country for the rest of the century. Thanks!
@unklegwar: Rack vengeance is vengeance you get at the department store, rather than having the vengeance custom-made. Sometimes custom-made vengeance is referred to as “bespoke vengeance.”
@Trai_Dep: We didn’t lie to go into the war. And yes, I support it. I supported it from day one, and will continue to do so until our objectives are achieved.
While he may not have always made the best of choices, at least President Bush is patriotic. That’s one of the qualities I look for in a president. If a person doesn’t care enough about our country or respect it enough to want to wear a flag or show proper signs of respect and courtesy, then that person doesn’t deserve a leadership role. That seems to be one of the key things that supporters of certain candidates lack these days– a fundamental understanding of respect for our country (or just plain respect in general). Hopefully that will change.
As for our indebtedness, please go take at least a basic macroeconomics class. Once you do, you’ll understand that much of the worry and rhetoric surrounding our national debt is filled with inaccuracies. There’s more scare tactic than truth in what’s being said by certain candidates these days.
Anyway, my money should be used for other more important things than paying down a debt than can be left to future generations– I’d like to buy a second vehicle and a vacation home on Maui. Maybe after getting those I’ll care a little about it… No, then I’ll just to decorate both of my homes with more, better, expensive stuff!
@BimmerConsumerist: Where are those pesky WMDs then?
@cde: I assume you don’t remember the SCUD missiles from the first Gulf War then? They didn’t just go away. There were reasons that Saddam wasn’t allowing inspections of his country– and it wasn’t just because of the facilities set up to torture his citizens, train terrorists, and aid enemies of the United States.
Have you been in Iraq? Do you know what you’re talking about? Or are you just blindly following what the mainstream media, with its own liberal agenda, is telling you– like many Americans do these days?
By doing what we’ve done we’ve made America a safer place. How many massive, successful terrorist attacks have happened on American soil since 9/11/01? I’d say that Bush’s strategy of presenting a good offense is working rather well. And even if we’ve got to step on a few toes in the process, it’s worth it.
I’d rather fight them on foreign soil than run back to the US and fight them here some day. Some candidates in this election seem to be embarassed by their association with America. Some would like to end this war at any cost, no matter how high. Some would capitulate and let the terrorists turn America into an Islamic state, just because they are afraid of “offending” somebody or some group. Some don’t understand the consequences of using a failed “can’t we all just get along?” approach which has never worked.
And then there are others– ones with leadership and legislative experience, war experience, and qualifications to be Commander-in-Chief of our military. Granted, McCain isn’t my first choice for a “conservative” candidate, but among the three liberals running this time he’s the least distasteful. The other two are just….pitiful and inexperienced.
@BimmerConsumerist:
Hey, I would be an American if all the surveys and people on the street didn’t make a distinction between myself and other “Americans”. I was born in Arizona people!
That said, this is all going woefully off-topic.
The tech shouldn’t have been looking up personal info and bragging about how he could get credit card info and such. Another case of our internet society.
@BimmerConsumerist:
The fact that he took a hammer to a $350 piece of equipment instead of reselling it if needed shows anger issues, which could lead to abuse. Also the fact he hit the kid without an explanation that quickly- another warning sign. Not saying whipping is necessarily bad- but there are warning signs there.
So am I the only person who takes pity on the kid? He’s young and stupid and immature. That’s what being a kid is about. What he did was no worse than prank calling or buying alcohol with a fake i.d. It’s the adult gamer who should have been mature and not taken it personally. It is just a game. And smashing a train set that someone spent time and effort working on is significantly different than keeping someone from being able to play a session of a game. You lose something of value, something physical when the train set is destroyed.
Let’s look at this from a different perspective. What if the guy had looked up the wrong account. Or what if the actual kid who did it was visiting at his friend’s house and his friend got beaten for it? How cool is that?
Bottom line, don’t play online if you can’t play nice. Get cheaters booted, not beaten.
The tech deserved to be fired and arrested for complicity in an assault.
I’m amazed to see so many people claim that what happened to the child is such a good thing.
So an adolescent figured out how to packet flood an xbox. That’s hardly hacking, and should never be punished as such. It definitely didn’t warrant ANY sort of physical violence.
It also definitely didn’t warrant the HUGE invasion of privacy perpetrated by this contract clown. For every person here who got what he deserves, how would you like it if “Mark” got angry that you beat him at every single game the two of you played on xbox live, and decided to look up your personal information and act as both judge and jury in a decision he has absolutely no right to make?
Lastly, let us not forget that the poor judgment of a child executing a silly internet trick is forgivable. Whereas an adult behaving in the manner of “Mark” is completely inexcusable.
@mechanismatic: I feel no sympathy for the kid at all, but I’m not buying a good portion of the story as it’s told. The slap, the hammer attack on the console… seem like sensationalized fiction, rather than things that actually occurred. The tech posted what he did because he wanted attention/praise/respect, and people who need those things from people on the internet usually have no qualms going overboard to get it.
@BimmerConsumerist: (1) What are our “objectives”? and (2) SCUDS are not WMD.
@BimmerConsumerist: STFU with your stupid political diatribes.
This is a fckn topic about a Comcast tech who taught an idiot a lesson. If you’re into blaming EVERYTHING towards the lefties, go and post your problems on a supportive political blog. Some retards just cant read the topic even when it’s clearly spelled out for them. It’s scary to know that they’re even allowed to log onto the internet.
Stupid POS!
@BimmerConsumerist: Scuds are not WMDs. Limited range and limited blasting power. A scud cannot kill 10,000 people or more people. A scud does not leave an area useless for years on end. A scud cannot be spread by people moving around while infected.
And last everyone agreed, the 9-11 hijackers had 0 (ZERO) connection with Iraq. If they did, why has the Bush Administration changed their stance from WMD to Terrorist Hunting to Liberating the People? because they are full of shit, and you, you’re blindly following the administration’s ultra-republican agenda. How many small terrorist attacks have happened since 9/11 then, since you specifically disinclude them in your question? Better yet, how many Massive Successful terrorist attacks happened since BEFORE bush came into power? Oklahoma, with a DOMESTIC terrorist.
@lemur: People who do drugs don’t have the best impulse control. I think that explains both the bong and the vegeneance upon the child spoiling his games. More importantly, who knew that Canada had wiggaz? Or is he more of a vato?
@Demonbird:
packet flooding. look into it shitbird before continuing to talk.
@skilled1:
If you had read no a couple posts further you would have seen I posted about that. Now, kindly go learn how to talk and act like a decent human being.