UPDATE: Dell has responded to the customer’s story.
_________
So it looks like it’s not only Geek Squad staffers that scour customers’ computers for free porn. A woman in California has recently gone public with claims that she not only watched as a Dell tech support worker downloaded nude pics of her remotely, but that he also set up a website featuring the photos. Oh, and he used her Dell credit card to buy stuff for another woman.
The woman called Dell support after some “personal pictures” she’d stored on her new Dell PC appeared to have disappeared from her hard drive. “I couldn’t find them on my computer and that made me nervous,” she said.
She was connected to a Dell tech in Mumbai, India, who asked if he could access her computer remotely, which she agreed to. “I trusted him,” she explained. “I trusted him because he was a Dell technician and I don’t like the cyberworld, you’re so vulnerable.”
But that’s when, she alleges, she watched as the Dell employee not only found the photos, but downloaded them onto his own computer. Says the woman, “I’m totally convinced. I watched him take the pictures out of my e-mail. I watched him.”
Not long after her call with Dell, those same photos popped up online.
At this point, you’d think she would have gotten a lawyer involved, but the woman continued to communicate with the Dell tech. In a head-scratcher of a twist, he talked her into shipping him a new Dell laptop so he could “work on her case” from home.
Says the woman:
And I’m telling myself, my conscience is talking to me saying, ‘Tara, don’t send this. What are you doing? Are you crazy?’ I sent it anyways because I really believed in this guy. I really had faith that he was protecting my dignity.
But wait — it gets stranger.
Apparently, the California customer wasn’t the only woman the Dell dude was chatting with online. In fact, on Valentine’s Day he admitted to having fallen in love with a customer from Tennessee.
And he he must have been so blinded by his love that he used the California woman’s Dell credit card to order $800 in Dell computer gear for the his Tennessee sweetheart.
The tech admitted the thievery in an e-mail from his official Dell account. “You’re my true friend,” he wrote. “I am sorry accidentally I charged your Dell account but I will pay. I don’t want to lose my job. It was a mistake which happened with me.”
According to the woman, Dell has been unresponsive to her complaints. They also did not reply to a request for comment from the ABC affiliate that first aired the story.
The woman says she has contacted an attorney and is considering legal action against Dell.
Woman’s nude photos exposed by tech support [ABC7]
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Did you really send a laptop? LOL. WOW
I don’t understand. She called about those same pictures being missing, right? If that’s the case, then the tech had good reason to access them. Not to save them for his personal use–so how could she tell he was doing so? And how did she know that he uploaded them to a website? This woman seems fairly ignorant about computers, and could have easily misinterpreted what she saw. On the other hand, if she’s correct and telling the truth, it’s valuable information for customers.
I really wish that journalists would be less… awful… when it comes to stories like this. Ask some questions!
Something about this story sounds INCREDIBLY fishy.
First, with something like 10000000000 adult websites (and tons more sites with nakey pics of women on them), what is the likelihood that this woman *just happens* to stumble across her own nude pics on some random website?
Second, the whole story about calling Dell because “pictures were disappearing off of my computer” and then “watching while the tech took the pictures out of my email” also makes no sense. If someone did have access to her computer (easily possible if her computer had a trojan allowing remote access by a hacker), why would they delete the pics? Why not just steal copies of them?
Third, she WATCHES THE TECH STEAL THE PICS and does nothing about it? Then contacts the same tech for help when the pics show up on a website?
Fourth, the business about the tech claiming to want to help her on his own time, and requiring a laptop to do it??? You send a DMCA request to the host, and the pics are down. Problem solved.
No. I’m calling bullshit.
I suspect something else happened. Perhaps an ex-boyfriend got mad and posted the pics she had earlier sent him, and sent a link to her friends or boyfriend. Or perhaps her computer was infected with a trojan and an anonymous hacker, or someone she knew, gained access to it.
But in any case, I can’t imagine how, unless this woman is *completely* stupid, she would have found this alleged website with her nakey pics on it, and then called the Dell tech who’d previously downloaded the pics for help, unless he was the one who pointed out the website to her in the first place, and even then, she would have to be dumber than a post.
Whole thing sounds really fishy. My guess is she’s going to try to extort cash out of Dell.
A little more research turns up this thread on Reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/cv888/womans_nudie_pics_are_stolen_from_her_computer_as/?sort=top
Turns out the woman is a skank on a cam site. There are also some awfully amusing/disturbing videos there of her dancing (clothed) in which it looks like she’s having a seizure.
Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.
Something foul is going on on the woman’s side. Why, after he “downloaded her nude photos” would she consider sending her brand new laptop to him? The chat logs that she was showing didnt seem to be Legit Dell chat screens. It was a personal picture of the Tech Guy with sunglasses on. I’m calling BS on this woman… Seems like she decided to Cyber with a dude from India…
Okay. here:
She started up an online “friendship” with a guy that works at Dell. They are and have been friends on Facebook – so I’m not sure if they met through a mutual friend (there is one mutual friend they share) or through her actually calling tech support.
There are comments that her boyfriend made (they are in a rocky relationship according to an Oprah forum) about the Dell guy and he doesn’t like that they are friends.
She already has a webcam sight that people pay money for and make requests for.
My guess is that maybe the dell guy did take the pictures/screenshots (that were given to him by her) and make a website – and sent her a link or something. Then somehow her boyfriend found out – so she pretended like she didn’t know anything about it and made up this ridiculous story which we are all reading. Then decided to go to the media after she found out this guy “fell in love” with another “customer”. Not sure how he had her credit card number or used to to buy a computer for someone else – maybe he did do this which may have pushed her over the edge.
BUT, I am not sure why she didn’t file a police report but instead a year later, went to the media.
In any case – the first part of the story – I am totally not buying.
I’m guessing Dell has been advised by their attorny not to respond to her or the media right now.
sorry for spelling/grammar.
Also. not to be rude – but she reminds me of those bipolar meth heads.
She looks skanky…maybe pics were to craigslist?
So, she doesn’t want her teenage daughter to see the pictures…but…she will let a complete stranger see them. She outs the guy from India for doing what he did on local TV now it has gone national…wonder how her teenage daughter feels now…
Am I the only one suspcious about this whole thing? First she said she “I couldn’t find them on my computer and that made me nervous” and then it was “I watched him take the pictures out of my e-mail. I watched him.” Now, I admit it is possible she is so stupid that email versus her own computer hard drive might be a confusing concept but still.
What I really want to know though is how she found them online? That would not be an easy task to do, especially if the guy was located in India which highly increases the chances of any pics being uploaded on less well known sites stateside. Sure there are sites like Tineye but if she doesn’t know the difference between images being in her email vs computer then I doubt she would know how to use sites like that.
Then there is questions on how she got all this knowledge about the guy, his involvement with “Tara” and more. That is not info that normally gets provided in tech calls because while you may think your problem is unique and important, to the guy at the other end your just idiot #1523586.
My point is there is a big disconnect here as the story doesn’t add up with the realities of the internet and the information the alleged victim is providing.
3 things you know are wrong with this story even before you read the story just by looking at the picture and title…
1. DELL
2. Left handed who can’t figure out how to set up the mouse for left handed mode
3. Fugly woman bitching about her nudies being stolen by an Indian.
If you don’t trust cyberspace…. THEN DON’T CONNECT TO CYBERSPACE!!!
oh yea…seriously dell indian dude….do you really think she was that hot naked to post those pics? Stupid bitch shouldn’t have fallen for that shit he told her.
I really don’t think Dell should do anything beyond just refunding her money back and that’s it… plain stupidity if you ask me……. she just wants that “special attention”……..just wait til Playboy calls……*rolls eyes*
WELCOME to Dell … company from Hell. I am a Texan and from Austin Texas, home for DELL.
DELL is a nightmare to deal with. AND get this …. New Dell Option? Pay extra and you can talk to an American form USA instead of INDIA or wherever.
This seems too implausible. I don’t think I can believe it (primarily that anyone would be so foolish and to continually do so).
Oh, man. I’m trying not to laugh, but this story is just too weird. I don’t want to blame the OP, because I don’t have any idea how I’d react if I was supported teleported into The Twilight Zone… which is apparently what happened here. This might be the single strangest story I’ve ever read here at the Consumerist.
Clearly, this woman deserved to have her pictures stolen. Isn’t that what the CEO of Google said? Don’t do it if you don’t want to be seen.
Wow. At every single step in this whole mess, this woman made a really, really terrible decision. If you honestly believe a Dell tech needs you to buy them a new laptop to work on your case….I just can’t finish the end of this sentence and not get disemvowled.
I’m sorry but right when she said she shipped her laptop to him in India…. wow. she gets what she deserves for being this naive. I understand that she isn’t tech savvy, but there is a thing called *Common Sense.
Pics plz
I’m thinking that she’s just looking for a payday. Nothing adds up here. I mean honestly, lost pictures. But they are sitting in your email. The tech downloads the pictures and suddenly they are posted to a web site. Just how is someone that doesn’t know how to hit the F3 key on their keyboard and type *.jpg to search for their “lost” pictures supposed to suddenly find them sitting on a random web site?
And the funniest thing in the story is when she said that she “doesn’t trust the cyber world”. And how she was taken advantage of.
I’ll just leave this here: http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/cv888/womans_nudie_pics_are_stolen_from_her_computer_as/c0vj7ca
When everyone is done having a look at that link watch the story again and try not to laugh.