Woman's Nude Photos Stolen by Dell Tech Support
Stranger than fiction? Sometimes.
Sometimes the things that happen in real life, especially in seemingly boring and ordinary situations, are stranger than what we can imagine.
A 48-year-old woman named Tara Fitzgerald from Sacramento was the victim of some very special technical support from Dell's outsourced team in India. In December 2008, she contacted Dell's technical support seeking help in a very sensitive problem.
Fitzgerald thought that she had misplaced a number of erotic pictures of herself that she was saving for her boyfriend. She contacted Dell's technical support and was helped by a level 2 tech named Riyaz Shaikh in Mumbai, India (who was actually an employee of Sitel India, an outsource call center service).
"I trusted him. I trusted him because he was a Dell technician," said Fitzgerald.
She let him have remote access to her PC, and she witnessed him take the pictures off of her email. Little did she know, those pictures were being saved for a nefarious purpose.
Less than a month later, Fitzgerald was notified from an unknown email that her naked pictures were published on a website called "bitchtara."
Fitzgerald then contacted Shaikh again about the pictures, and he suggested that perhaps her boyfriend had leaked them to the internet. Oddly enough, a user named "rayizshaikh" claimed ownership of those photos on the bitchtara website, but Fitzgerald didn't have the heart to study the online posting.
Shaikh told Fitzgerald that he would work on her case from home and requested that he be provided with a new Dell laptop in his home in Mumbai.
"My conscience is talking to me, saying 'Tara, don't send this. Are you crazy?' I sent it anyway," she said.
Fitzgerald spent $195 sending the laptop via UPS next-day air shipping.
The conversations between the two became of personal nature. In an email dated January 11, 2009, Shaikh wrote: "There are no words to express how I feel about you. I constantly search for the words, and they all seem less than I truly feel. You are my life, my heart, and my soul. You are my best friend. You are my one true love. I still remember the day we first met. I knew that you were the one I was meant to be with forever."
But then a month later on Valentine's Day, Shaikh broke the news to Fitzgerald that he had fallen in love with a 22-year-old woman from Tennessee who had also met him through Dell technical support.
Fitzgerald soon discovered two charges on February 17, 2009 totaling $802 on her Dell Preferred credit card for a computer and router that were shipped to a woman in Waynesboro, Tennessee.
Fitzgerald was able to get in contact again with Shaikh on March 18, 2009, when he admitted his fraud: "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 happend with me and I am screwed."
Shaikh at a later date promised repayment: "We will pay u 1000. 500 and 500. remaining 500 u have to wait 2-4 mth."
Fitzgerald said that she reported the inappropriate contact and credit fraud to Dell on three separate occasions last year. Dell provided an affidavit to disavow the fraudulent charges on her credit card, but she refused to sign it because she wanted Dell to acknowledge the charges had been made by one of its representatives. Her most recent contact from Dell was a letter seeking a past due payment of $77 on her Dell Preferred credit card.
After reporting the incidents to Dell and the Sacramento Police Department more than a year ago, Fitzgerald finally decided to turn to the media to share her story.
"I've been violated. My life's been violated," said Fitzgerald. "I'm a woman, and no woman likes to be taken advantage of."
Dell has yet to respond.
(Source: News10 KXTV.)
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the lesson of today's story? learn to build your own computer, and avoid stupid problems like this!
now im off to find these pictures =D
It's a 48 year old woman...
Though she probably could've easily hired some 13 year old kid to build her a good PC. Or maybe a professional, but the kid might be cheaper.
While I hate to say it, but she kind of deserved it. She should've reported the guy once she found the pictures online.
It's a 48 year old woman...Though she probably could've easily hired some 13 year old kid to build her a good PC. Or maybe a professional, but the kid might be cheaper.
i didn't realize 48yo women were incapable of learning to put a computer together. MY BAD -_-
This is news??? This has to be the dumbest "news" I have ever read in my entire life...
Sounds very fishy to me.
He steals her pics, posts them and she gives him a laptop?
Sounds more like they started some freaky relationship, she sent him pics, gave him a laptop, money ect. and when he decided she was a dumb bitch it was time to get rid of her and she wants revenge.
Avoid stupid problems like this? That chick is RETARDED! Why would she not have made a complaint the moment he was taking her photo's? Ugh, people. Then, she has a relationship with him, 5,000 miles apart while she has a boyfriend. Sweet!
and what has the boyfriend she's been saving her erotic pictures for done in response to this? he don't happen to represent dell and live in india too right?
Hard to feel sorry for such a person. She screwed up and is now trying to play the victim.
Note to self: don't take nude photos of myself and then ask an employee of an Indian call centre to find them for me. Yep have to look out for that one, gets you every time...
Yeah the whole pictures on the net, plus the fact that he proclaimed his love for her caused some many red flags to go up. Nevertheless, she should higher a lawyer and sue Dell.
I am wondering how did she understand then tech from India? When they talk it all runs together. Di da tu meh ti click on start button.
stupid
WOW that is such a shame... if only she had bought an apple since apple keeps their tech support in America this could have been avoided.
EWWWWWW!!!!
"hey I was surfing the web on a site called bitchtara and I happened to see naked pics of you...whats up with that?"
lets just hope all the people in this story get spay or neutered
This is some fishy about this story.......
"Less than a month later, Fitzgerald was notified from an unknown email that her naked pictures were published on a website called "bitchtara."
How did this person know her e-mail address?
"Shaikh told Fitzgerald that he would work on her case from home and requested that he be provided with a new Dell laptop in his home in Mumbai.
"My conscience is talking to me, saying 'Tara, don't send this. Are you crazy?' I sent it anyway," she said."
Enought said......
"Fitzgerald said that she reported the inappropriate contact and credit fraud to Dell on three separate occasions last year. Dell provided an affidavit to disavow the fraudulent charges on her credit card, but she refused to sign it because she wanted Dell to acknowledge the charges had been made by one of its representatives."
I can understand that she wanted Dell to acknowledge the charges had been made by one of its representatives....but refusing to sign affidavit doesn't one bit and now she will owning the money.
What a dumb twit.
it wouldn't be avoided, americans would be faster to post the pictures on the net! Why would you call the manufacturers tech support for this anyway?? its not a hardware fault! stupid woman! never trust anyone with your naked photos!!! duh...
some people should not have an access to PC, internet, and anything remotely close a smartphone...
"After reporting the incidents to Dell and the Sacramento Police Department more than a year ago, Fitzgerald finally decided to turn to the media to share her story."
so now thousands of people can point and laugh at her publicly from all over the world...
LOL I would love it to see her try to sue dell. Theres so many holes in this story that's easily spotted out. Think of how the lawyers could make her look in court.. O that would almost be worth reading about.
LOL this is just hilarious all around. Did she jsut call up dell and say "i need help finding my nudie pics?" and actually expect anything else? And WTF, she bought him a laptop?! Thats like taking the guy that mugs you out to dinner. I could see her being blackmailed into buying him the laptop (if she didnt he would send pics to everyone on her email contact lists), but he had already posted them at this point lol. And wtf, he used his real name to post the pics under LMAO it just gets dumbed and dumber.
She was in love, spent money, and he dumped her. She was happy someone looked at her wrinkles.
Yeah that's one thing about reaching out using the web - you need to be very careful too what you reach out.
a kid/Geek in the town I grew up in(I know cause I was one of em) would fix your computer set you up with an antivirus run you through how to back up files and general rules of thumb that you should strictly follow for a 2 liter and a pizza. I'm sure its not much more expensive anywhere else.
Hard to feel sorry when there were so many warning signs.
She's not even that good looking, what does he want them for?
Springer..springer...springer
Is there any part of this story that doesn't scream "This chick is a complete moron in every way possible?" Too funny to be true, my suspicion is the whole incident is a farce.
the lesson of today's story? learn to build your own computer, and avoid stupid problems like this!now im off to find these pictures =D
You build your own laptop? Or you didn't read the article, because you wanted to be first?
While I hate to say it, but she kind of deserved it. She should've reported the guy once she found the pictures online.
Deserve it? Stupid people deserve to be ill treated? wtf is wrong with you people?
the lesson of today's story? learn to build your own computer, and avoid stupid problems like this!
Lol was what I was about to say.