Not to mention a lot of weird pics like this. Cripes!
Revenge of the eBay customer sold ‘faulty’ laptop | the Daily Mail — This is too funny. BUSTED!
A student accused of selling a ‘dodgy’ laptop on eBay is paying the price today after embarrassing personal information about him was posted on the Internet [link]received half a million visits.
Details of Amir Tofangsazan’s personal life and pictures of his friends emerged when the computer buff who forked out 375-pounds for Tofangsazan’s used laptop on the Internet auction site claimed the machine arrived two months late and didn’t work.
Having fixed the computer, the anonymous buyer says he found it contained all sorts of information about the seller, 18-year-old Amir.
It explains in great detail who Amir is and how he sold the ‘dodgy’ computer. It goes on to show pictures of Amir’s family and friends, a copy of his passport, and pornographic images the buyer claims to have found on its hard drive.
There are also pictures of Amir with a bare chest, with a drawn-on moustache and devil’s horns, kissing a girl and sleeping. Not to mention ’90 pictures of women’s legs’.
Finally, the anonymous buyer e-mailed everyone in Amir’s address book and told them to have a good look at the web page, posted on the gossip website holymoly.co.uk.
The story goes on and on. What a great tale of buyers revenge. Amazing. And as for a half-million pageviews. That’s only the beginning.
found by Pat McEntee
Post of the month, John. 🙂
Very, very, funny. Revenge is a dish best served on the web!
You know you’ve lived in the States too long when you read an article like this and all the way through you’re thinking: “This guy’s going to get sued into next Tuesday”.
this proves to a shadow of a dout….
That NOT all persons are GEEK enough to WIPE a DRIVE, of the system they sell.
I bet he sold it because it didnt work, and SOMEONE found out what was wrong and fixed it..(the HD was full or Bot death).
It also shows REVENGE is sweet, if you have abit of knowledge. And THANK GOD, he didnt open up Amir’s accounts, and just DUMP them to Charity….
ECA (4) – if he stole his money and donated it to charity he’d be more than sued (3) – he’d be criminally charged, and for good reason – besides, if he’s not extremely computer literate, why would he have his account information on his computer?
They’re both weasels. The Amir dude is of questionable character, especially with the surrepticious leg shots. However, the buyer (undoubtedly a kid/young man) is of even lower character.
Amir has a beautiful ‘invasion of privacy, defamation, libel’ suit, which he’ll win, if he pursues it. What Amir did was wrong, but was the laptopguy did was far worse.
We’re done with this story now. Can we get back to trying to figure out what to do with CEOs and politicians and Iraq and Iran, please?
I’m not seeing any libel here. This is classic reporting with an edge. What’s the untruth of any of this? Slander and libel is calling someone a criminal when they are not. Or saying they are drunk when they are not. This is just reporting.
I all I know is, I am not taking legal advice from Dvorak. Better stick to what you know.
5,
Did you think of a reason…Or should I insert foot.
HOw many people in the world have enough knowledge to INSTALL properly on their computer, or do they just LET it Happen..
Goto your BANK site and watch the cookie be loaded to AUTO log you into your account…
AS a smart person, I DONT WANT THAT COOKIE, I would rather INSERT my name and address EACH TIME, then to let it SIT on my computer, for any Bot, virus, Trojan, REMOTE to gather and SEND the info to some hacker…
OR, even to let ANYONE, that gets USE of my computer to have ACCESS to my accounts…
OR, have your computer/laptop STOLEN…
How about YOU?? Tell me HOW protected you are against something like this happening…and I will tell you…you are a fool, to think ANYTHING CANT happen…
NEVEr let them install a cookie to AUTO login, for your accounts, or important info/accounts…
AND the best sites WONT install that cookie, on PERSONAL accounts.
Awesome. Stupid folks get what they deserve!!
Remember, to wipe your porn before selling your computer! Doh!
Taylor Bow might be the “ultimate” revenge site – if it is real.
RE #7
Brittish Law may be different, but most likely John is right, the information on the HD became the property of the buyer on the conclusion of the sale. No different than a TV left behind when a house is sold – it is “abandoned assets” that go by default to the new owner. No different than an OS or application that was left on the drive – the license remains with the machine even if the documentation was not transferred. That’s why the Windows sticker is on the machine.
However, had the seller made any attempt to remove the data, even if ineffective, then the data was not abandoned, there is an invasion of privacy and the situation reverses. Yet, it’s difficult to prove either way.
BTW, Amir had every right to take any picture in a public place, so long as it did not deliberatly invade privacy – Folded legs yes, upskirt no.
And – I’ve seen better legs
Looking at the site – Amir may have a case because of the first person nature of the website’s presentation. He never actually said or printed those statements.
The real villian is eBay who does nothing to protect buyers. One practice thathey allow is sellers placing feedback only after buyers and threatening revenge feedback – such that buyers have no avenue of valid complaint.
Ebay could easily stop the problem by not allowing positive feedback to acrue to a seller unless they post feedback before the seller and providing 30 days delay for buyers to post negative feedback – allowing time for items to arrive and issues to be resolved.
Ebay doesn’t do this, because they only cater to buyers, who pay their fees and solely create their revenue.
#6, I don’t think there’s any defamation or libel committed here by the victim. It’s not defamation if I say something about you that you don’t like or find embarrassing. You wouldn’t win a lawsuit unless you could prove (a) what I said was false and (b) I knew it to be false when I said it. Even after that, to win any compensation, you’d need to present quantifiable evidence that you were damaged.
As for the invasion of privacy, what about the unsuspecting women of whom he took surreptitous photos on the train? He should be able to invade other people’s privacy in privacy?
Under U.K. or American law…..there are no grounds for a suit, but having said that, the guy (Amir) could sue and if the Gods are with him, he could get an idiot Judge and maybe win the first round.
If I was Amir, I would just slink back into my hole and hope to hell no one who actually knows me reads this stuff.
Lessons of the story are:
1) Don’t rip off your customers.
2) Don’t lie or evade the customer once you gave him the product.
3) Wipe your hard drive.
4) Always be careful when buying something from eBay. They won’t protect you or even do much to help.
BTW, there are no grounds for suing. The page is obviously a satirical work even if presented in the first person. Satire is protected speech. Everything is based upon the truth (or facts) gleaned from the computer or that transpired.
The buyer is a student and can not afford to sue the seller.
Isn’t it really obvious that much of the stuff on the site wasn’t actually on the hard drive? I don’t doubt that the photos of this Amir guy topless are genuine, but I don’t see what makes everyone think that the buyer of the laptop is telling the whole truth. Look closer at some of the photos. Heads of Amir and his friends / family have been superimposed onto the photos! I think the buyer took those photos of the womens’ legs himself. The ‘pornography’ could easily have been taken off the internet by the buyer. Just because the guy has been ripped off, that doesn’t mean we should believe everything he says!
Add that to the ‘satire’ (which includes clearly-fabricated “quotes” from a CV etc etc) and I’d say Amir’s got a pretty good chance in a defamation suit.
The sort of person who would go to the trouble to set up a website to get his revenge is the sort of person who might conceivably hack into Amir’s hotmail account – as Amir has accused him of doing…
Sure, but I’d be very surprised if it’s all true.
Plus, there’s also section 127 of the Communications Act 2003:
“(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he-
(a) sends by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or
(b) causes any such message or matter to be so sent.
(2) A person is guilty of an offence if, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another, he-
(a) sends by means of a public electronic communications network, a message that he knows to be false,
(b) causes such a message to be sent; or
(c) persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network.”
If some of it isn’t false (and so covered by subsection (2)), surely there’s no doubt that it’s menacing (and so covered by subsection (1))?
@Peter: The guy who made the site did say that the dates on the photos pre-date him getting the laptop and that he’s willing to verify this with the police. I’m sure everything is pretty documentable, given it was an auction, with mail tracking etc. involved.
I highly doubt the CV stuff was fabrication either. Just by reading the eBay listing(which was definitely written by Amir), you see how he writes in a self-aggrandizing fashion. Why would he need to make up a story about how he fired a guy and the guy stole the charger cable to the laptop other then making himself appear like a big shot. I’m sure all the info was there.
Using that as a basis it definitely casts Amir as a liar, so why would I believe him when he says the stuff wasn’t on the computer? What other course of action does he have to save face? If he admits the items on the computer were his, he’s then a confessed pervert who takes pictures of women’s legs in the subway, which I’m sure could get him in some trouble. It’s just easier from his standpoint to deny the wrongdoing.
You know jamEs, you’re absolutely right. The buyer would have to be very stupid in such a situation not to do everything by the book!
Sorry about that, I have no idea what I was thinking, I was talking absolute nonsense. Must have been having really bad day when I wrote all that!