Posted on 08/02/2010 8:32:12 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
An extremely naive American woman who contacted Dell’s tech support helpline reportedly got more than she bargained for, after some very personal photos were swiped from her computer.
News10 reported last week that Sacramento, California resident Tara Fitzgerald, 48, had allowed Riyaz Shaikh - an employee of Sitel India, which has an outsourcing contract with Dell - to access her PC remotely.
She had contacted Shaikh in December 2008 because Fitzgerald was unable to locate some naked photographs of her that had been stored on her hard drive.
“I couldn’t find them on my computer and that made me nervous. I didn’t know where they went,” she told News10.
She asked Mumbai, India-based Shaikh to track down the saucy pictures by naively allowing him to take control of the computer and browse her personal messages and files.
She watched the outsourcer as he discovered the naked photos in attached emails Fitzgerald had sent to her boyfriend.
“I watched him take the pictures out of my email. I watched him,” she exclaimed.
By January 2009 a site - named “bitchtara” - was allegedly created that featured 16 nude and semi-nude pictures of Fitzgerald. According to News10 the website was still active as of last Wednesday (28 July).
Then, even more bizarrely, Fitzgerald contacted Shaikh to confront him about the website only to be foolishly talked into buying the Dell tech support man a laptop, shipped from Sacramento to Mumbai, for him to work on her “case” from home.
On 20 January 2009 she stumped up $195 to get the laptop sent out to Shaikh by air the following day.
“My conscience is talking to me, saying ‘Tara, don’t send this. Are you crazy?’ I sent it anyway,” she said.
The story continued to get even more bizarre, with Fitzgerald admitting that she exchanged personal emails and phone messages with Shaikh that eventually got more intimate.
“He’s very charming and he knew exactly what to say. It warmed my heart,” she told News10.
By February last year Fitzgerald discovered that two purchases totalling $802 had been charged to her Dell credit card.
She contacted the computer maker and it confirmed that the transactions for a computer and router had been sent to a woman in Waynesboro, Tennessee.
On Valentine’s Day last year Shaikh confessed to Fitzgerald that he had “fallen in love” with a 22-year-old woman in Tennessee.
A month later he wrote to Fitzgerald proclaiming:
“ur my True friend Tara… I am sorry Accidently I charged ur Dell Account but I will pay. I don’t want to loose my job. It was a mistake which happened with me and I am screwed.”
Fitzgerald told News10 that she then contacted Dell to tell them about the fraudulent charge made on her card. She claimed the company sent her an affidavit allowing her to disavow the unauthorised charges. Fitzgerald declined to sign it.
“They haven’t done anything. I’m upset about that,” she said.
Last Thursday Dell told News10 that it had investigated the claim.
"We contacted the vendor [Sitel India] 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."
The Register asked Dell to comment on this story, but at time of writing it hadn’t got back to us with a statement. It’s not clear if Shaikh still works for Sitel. ®
Well that's one word for it.
This is a good sign. Apparently she could actually understand the tech support guy.
Why didn’t he use copy/paste instead of cut/paste?
Doh!
/mark
Hay-lo.
Thees ees tech support.
Eef you send me naked pictures of you, I weell help you weeth your computer problems.
Idiot.
Not for having the pictures, but for letting some horny Indian have access to them
Most I ever got was they had me up all night doing an unnecessary restore on my computer, then when I complained they started pretending to switch me to bogus departments and laughing in the background, finally they began calling my house from India in the middle of the night, yelling at me for traumatizing their worker and getting him in trouble.
But the sex was great. /s
Need to see the pics to determine guilt...
Guilty. No doubt about it.
Nevermind... the interview sealed it.
If she won't sign it, then there's nothing the company can do about it.
In this case naive woman = one dumb broad!! (Who just broadcast that fact to the world!!)
Riiiiiiiiiiight.
It is morons like this woman that keep electing democrats.
and her solution is to tell the media about it???
“Please everyone, if you come across a site called Bitchtara, Please do not visit, it has stolen naked pictures of me.”
From the Article: “Thank you for your enquiry (sic). Meeting our customers’ needs and delivering quality customer service is our primary goal at Dell. Our service is based on a foundation of personal and professional integrity, and at Dell, we never compromise these standards.
When Ms. Fitzgerald contacted Dell about this incident last year, 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. “
LOL...apparently just $$$$ fine quality customer service. And it ONLY took one year.
You are correct. This woman is incredibly stupid. But that does not excuse Dell from its responsibility to screen out thieves and perverts from its employment base.
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