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Peeping Techie

A tech support agent in India is accused of striking up an online friendship with a caller and then using her credit card to purchase a Dell computer, which he shipped to a woman in Waynesboro, Tenn.

By LIFS August 7, 2010 at 2:24 PM

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A Sacramento, Calif., woman says an Indian tech support representative in Mumbai stole private, erotic nude photos from her computer and posted them on a website after she called Dell technical support for help with her new computer.

Tara Fitzgerald, 48, said she contacted Dell’s tech support line in December 2008 for help in locating nude photos of herself on her hard drive to send to her boyfriend. She claims she authorized Riyaz Shaikh, an employee of Sitel India, a Mumbai call center contracted by Dell to provide tech support to its customers, to assume remote control of her computer and says she watched him download her photos, which later appeared on a website “bitchtara.”

Fitzgerald says Shaikh struck up an online friendship with her and then used her Dell credit card to purchase a Dell computer, which he shipped to a woman in Waynesboro, Tenn. In one email exchange, Shaikh wrote to Fizgerald “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.”

After Fitzgerald went public with her story on the ABC News 10 affiliate in Sacramento, Dell released a statement that it is investigating her claims and that Shaikh “no longer handles Dell calls.”

Fitzgerald told News 10 that she is planning on suing Dell: “I’ve been violated. My life’s been violated,” adding “He still has my pictures. And that scares me.”

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