Sky News exposes dodgy laptop repair shops

[expat]

Shock horror - some bint goes into a shop with a laptop not switching on, the dodgy shop quote her £130 for a new motherboard and browse the pics she took of herself with her knockers out for her boyfriend..

Hardly deserves the title "REPAIR SHOPS HACK YOUR LAPTOP"...

People need to take more responsibility for their personal data such as encryption or NAS drive rather than leaving it to chance that other people are 100% trustworthy.

As for scamming them for a new motherboard, personally speaking the technician may have been justified to quote this if they had deliberately left the memory chip loose as it could have constituted an intermittent fault, or could re-occur again in the future. Memory modules don't just work themselves loose unless you're playing american football with the laptop...

Besides, what's wrong with the lazy bint going to get several quotes from various places?

Crap story, crap justifications, misleading article.

I am a bit shocked at your reaction. Indeed, replacing the motherboard might be a good future-proofing for the fault. But otherwise: browsing "the pics she took of herself with her knockers out for her boyfriend" is wrong. I'm not naive enough to think that it would never be committed, but I don't think we should accept it as if it were not wrong.

And as for "People need to take more responsibility for their personal data such as encryption or NAS drive", where will the unsophisticated user find that in their instruction book? Or are you of the school that if you're not a geek then you don't deserve to have a PC?

What about "the lazy bint going to get several quotes from various places"? Let them all have a gander??

[Cyberman]

I am a bit shocked at your reaction. Indeed, replacing the motherboard might be a good future-proofing for the fault. But otherwise: browsing "the pics she took of herself with her knockers out for her boyfriend" is wrong. I'm not naive enough to think that it would never be committed, but I don't think we should accept it as if it were not wrong.

And as for "People need to take more responsibility for their personal data such as encryption or NAS drive", where will the unsophisticated user find that in their instruction book? Or are you of the school that if you're not a geek then you don't deserve to have a PC?

What about "the lazy bint going to get several quotes from various places"? Let them all have a gander??

WHS !!!

[Peoplesoft bloke]

The point about loose RAM is fair enough though - like on TV shows where they take the fuse out of the boiler.

Also how come knockers is allowed but norks (N o r k s) isn't?

[BrilloPad]

Sky News exposes dodgy laptop repair shops
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/0...epair-shops-uk

Sky News in the UK have exposed several laptop repair shops including some big names like Micro Anvika and PC World.

In the investigation researchers unplugged a RAM stick from a laptop to see if the shops would simply diagnose the fault or charge for extra work and components. Only one shop was genuinely honest, Pix 4 in Shepherds Bush. The rest, including Micro Anvika and PC World charged huge amounts for work that was not required, including replacing the laptop motherboard. Sky News found that the most serious offender was Revival Computers in Hammersmith, West London. Revival Computers snooped around the researches documents including pictures of the researcher in a bikini. The cowboys didn't stop there though, they copied the data onto a portable USB drive and opened a txt file with fake Hotmail, Facebook and NatWest banking login details. One technician at the store attempted to get access to the NatWest site but failed simply because the details were fake.

The sting was setup using surveillance software on the laptop that recorded the technicians every move and filmed them using the laptops on board camera. An investigator from Trading Standards said he was "shocked" by the findings. Richard Webb, an e-commerce investigator for Trading Standards said: "I'm really quite shocked, both in the range of potential problems this has revealed - people overcharging, mis-describing the faults - but also people attempting to steal personal details."

Revival Computers in Hammersmith refused to comment on film to Sky but later denied all knowledge of the alleged abuses. Questions will surely be asked following this report but perhaps IT technicians should be regulated in the same way that Lawyers, Teachers and other professionals are?

Full Sky News article: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-...Personal_Files

IMO nothing wrong with looking round the hard drive : suppose they found child porn?

However copying the data is clearly wrong. And attempting to login to NatWest account is surely criminal. I hope the police are involved.

[deckster]

IMO nothing wrong with looking round the hard drive : suppose they found child porn?

Eh? So, because a tiny minority of computers may have illegal images on them, we're expected to open up to all comers with nary a complaint? You won't mind when the police come knocking on your door next week to check for illegal immigrants under your bed then, just in case like.

[d000hg]

Shock horror - some bint goes into a shop with a laptop not switching on, the dodgy shop quote her £130 for a new motherboard and browse the pics she took of herself with her knockers out for her boyfriend..

Hardly deserves the title "REPAIR SHOPS HACK YOUR LAPTOP"...

Browsing your files is wrong but not really scandalous. Finding bank details and trying to use them is utterly illegal.

[Platypus]

But otherwise: browsing "the pics she took of herself with her knockers out for her boyfriend" is wrong.

one of the perks of the job

You've clearly never mended a computer for a mate

[The Lone Gunman]

IMO nothing wrong with looking round the hard drive : suppose they found child porn?

However copying the data is clearly wrong. And attempting to login to NatWest account is surely criminal. I hope the police are involved.

So you wont mind the electrician having a rummage through your other halfs underwear draw next time he is at yours for a blown fuse? Just in case you have some child porn in there?

[BoredBloke]

Shock horror - some bint goes into a shop with a laptop not switching on, the dodgy shop quote her £130 for a new motherboard and browse the pics she took of herself with her knockers out for her boyfriend..

Why is he browsing her hard drive? The thing wouldn't boot due to an incorrectly fitted bit of memory.

People need to take more responsibility for their personal data such as encryption or NAS drive rather than leaving it to chance that other people are 100% trustworthy.

It's a laptop. It has a hard drive for storing data. I know plenty of people who have a laptop but don't even know what a NAS drive is.

As for scamming them for a new motherboard, personally speaking the technician may have been justified to quote this if they had deliberately left the memory chip loose as it could have constituted an intermittent fault, or could re-occur again in the future. Memory modules don't just work themselves loose unless you're playing american football with the laptop...

I don't agree. It could have been badly fitted to start with. I've had a memory issue before and more often it's the memory that is at fault. I wouldn't replace the MB because it might be faulty. That was simply somebody pulling a fast one. They wanted 130 because the 2 mins reseating the chip and the 30 they would have charged for that was not enough for them.

[chris79]

Ok,

I agree with the replies here - what they have done is wrong, but my point being that you can't just rely on everyone being trustworthy in this world - and there is some lengths you can go to for self help, be it personal data security, or getting more than one quote..

Apart from that, yes - what they have done is wrong and illegal (in the bank details situation)..

I just think that the headline makes out that all PC repair shops are scammers/hackers and untrustworthy - bit of a slanderous title - I wasn't happy with the way the article was written.