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Outsourced Comcast Tech Gets Vengeance On Xbox Cheaters

dslreports.com — A Convergsys support technician outsourced by Comcast may have gone a little overboard in a quest for righteous videogame vengeance. After getting packet flooded (a networking trick that essentially DDoS's a user's Xbox) by some fellow gamers on Microsoft's Xbox Live! service, the rep decided to use Comcast support systems to wage war....

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  • aikimann, on 04/03/2008, -7/+22looks like the forum post linked to in the article was taken down. Here's a fun quote when it was up:

    "the father began to yell at his son, i then heard a loud smack, and then sobbing, and then cracking noise as if something was breaking..it then occured to me that the father had just beat the ***** out of his kid, and the cracking noise was the sound of a hammer on an xbox."
  • d00mz, on 04/03/2008, -2/+8I've got the first page of the posts from that forum. Rehosting it at this link:
    http://tinyurl.com/ytexf4
    • Koncept, on 04/03/2008, -2/+11Holy *****! The signatures on that forum are HUGE...
      • TheLastFreeMan, on 04/03/2008, -1/+7Obviously overcompensating.
      • dggeek, on 04/03/2008, -1/+6It's my philosophy that forum relevance and signature size are inversely related.
        • elrac, on 04/03/2008, -2/+5I agree
          ********************************************************************************
          This was a triumph.
          The cake is a lie.
          expect unforeseen consequences.
          See my halo 3 videos at X-Box.com

          blah blah blah, this is harder then it looks.
          ********************************************************************************
    • TBerrigan, on 04/03/2008, -0/+44"as many of you know, i work for Comcast as a tier 2.5 support agent, which essentially means im on of the top 1% elitest agents..I fix anything other agents cant..."

      This guy sounds like a ***** douche.
      • Monk22, on 04/03/2008, -6/+6I'm not your buddy, guy!
        • dngbauer, on 04/03/2008, -4/+4Im not your guy, friend!
          • thetinguy, on 04/03/2008, -4/+5im not your friend, buddy!
          • Vlatro, on 04/03/2008, -5/+4It was amusing until about the 6 billionth time we heard it. For the love of God, Shut the ***** up with this.
          • Monk22, on 04/03/2008, -3/+3i bet your fun at parties vlatro
      • Vlatro, on 04/03/2008, -0/+26The real hero here is the kid's dad. Anyone who smacks the ***** out of a 12 year old punk running a DDoS on XBL deserves a medal or something. If only the comcast douche bag had a dad who cared enough to straighten him out a bit, this would never have happened.
        Douche Bag: Fired.
        Punk kid : Beaten.
        Cool Dad: Probably got another beer and freed up the TV in time for the game.
        Justice has been served.
  • peterlisanti, on 04/03/2008, -1/+98Well, not sure that packet flooding is indeed "illegal activity", but abusing Comcast's customer database for these purposes is apparently a fire-abe offense.
    Way to go Mr. "Elite Agent", looks like you aren't going to make level 3.
    • Zarokima, on 04/03/2008, -20/+6But he's still ***** awesome for getting back at a cheater like that. It sure taught that little bastard a lesson about playing fair.
      • WanderlustX2, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3Too bad he isn't any better and in my opinion worse than the kid.
      • Dudely, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3He's no better then the kid. The kid was just being a little prick, and no harm was done. The dude was being a huge douche just so he could go on a forum and laugh about it. It's the same thing in my book.
    • insomniac8400, on 04/03/2008, -1/+5Yes it is illegal. No need to guess about it.
    • unknownsoldierX, on 04/03/2008, -3/+8Why fire Abe? He didn't do anything!
    • Vlatro, on 04/03/2008, -3/+10[quote]I can get anyone's creditcard number by your ip address if u have comcast and are in my party :P I know your home address zipcode, email accounts as well...oh ya, and best part is i can restart your modem with a push of a button...so dont piss me off :P[/quote]

      I say "*****". Yes, a tech at any ISP can (and under those circumstances, probably will) disconnect your service. The credit card numbers line is complete BS.

      First it assumes the customer pays by or even has a credit card.

      Second, it assumes the credit card number is kept on file and linked to the customer's current IP. Theoretically possible, yes. But most ISPs know better. Prodigy had a major problem with this practice and the subsequent abuse from employees and cyber-criminals alike back in 1994. Common practice today is to use a 3rd party authorization firm. It cost more per transaction, which just gets added to your bill, but saves them massive amounts of liability, and is a legal requirement for operating in many countries.

      Third, Most credit cards outside the US, Canada, and EU mean nothing to businesses. They are typically issued by small banks and governments without actual credit backing. That means the funds must be verified. Self-authorization makes this impossible. That's why the number alone is meaningless. There are security codes, name and residence validations, bank verification etc. before you can even look at whether or not there are funds to apply charges to. While many businesses do retain the number for rebills, no initial purchase will be validated by a reputable vendor without the additional information. Those dishonest vendors who will approve it can have the charge contested and ALWAYS lose in court. 100% of contested charges in which proper authorization was not done are thrown out. So even if he had the number, He couldn't do jack ***** with it.

      Fourth, I don't believe Comcast would give customer credit info to a 3rd party support company. Their Billing and tech support are two different groups in two different locations.

      Fifth, this guys sounds like of ***** bag of hot air. He talks big, but he's proven nothing. There are a lot of people who can ***** with you online. They take great pride in that and would not settle for a half-assed screenshot as their only evidence. Nothing short of irrefutable proof is ever posted by someone with actual skillz. Their egos demand perfection, as anything left to speculation is a weakness that someone better than them can exploit in the typical game of one-upsmanship. Reminds me of a wanna-be hacker IT guy I used to work with. He figured out how to set up a VPN in his home and tried to convince me he was "Hacking" someone's computer by accessing it at work. All you can do with these guys is let out a whisper of a sigh, a gentle "douche bag" under your breath and walk away shaking your head and wondering what attrocity the world ever committed against his parents that they, in what could only be an act of retaliation, would choose to breed.
      • h3lx, on 04/03/2008, -5/+3You know, you could've ended your comment at the first sentence there Mr "I'm writing a bunch of *****" Guy.
        • Vlatro, on 04/03/2008, -2/+2There is wisdom to be found in my writings. For instance, you should read my last line, as it seems it would apply well to your life. It may even seem like something written just for you.
      • Gerfervonbob, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2I worked at an ISP's tech support for a year and during that time I could get access to anyone's credit card information.
        • Vlatro, on 04/03/2008, -2/+1Really? May I ask the ISP's name? I've worked for several ISPs over the years and they've all conformed to a standard in practice. Barring bandwidth resellers like local dial-up companies etc, I didn't know of any companies that would leave their legal liability so open like that. Did you store it with the bank number and CCV? Do they hire temps who have access to this info? If so, I'd be happy to lend my services for a week.
  • DCB360, on 04/11/2008, -1/+12http://www.halo3forum.com/complete-off-topic/19127 ...

    Comcast employee advocating torrenting. Is it a trap?
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 04/03/2008, -15/+5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
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      • MacSuxWindozSux, on 04/03/2008, -13/+1҉. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ./ It’s a trap!
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _,,,--~~~~~~~~--,_ . . . . ._________/
        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,-‘ : : : :::: :::: :: : : : : :º ‘-, . . /. . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . . . . . .,-‘ :: : : :::: :::: :::: :::: : : :o : ‘-, . . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . . . . ,-‘ :: ::: :: : : :: :::: :::: :: : : : : :O ‘-, . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . . . . . . .,-‘ : :: :: :: :: :: : : : : : , : : :º :::: :::: ::’; . . . . . . . .
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        . . . . / /---‘’’’ : # : : : : : | | : (O##º : :/ /-‘’ . . . . . . . . . . .
        . . . . /,’____ : : ‘-# : , : : : : ‘-,___,-‘,-`-,, . . . . . . . . . . .
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        . . . . .,/ /|| | :/ / : : : : : : : ,’-, :: :: :: :: ::,--‘’ :,-‘ . . . . . . . .
        . . . . .’| |/ ‘/ / :: :_--,, : , | )’; :: :: :: :,-‘’ : ,-‘ : : : , . . . . . . .
        . . . ./¯ :| | : |/ :: ::----, :/ :|/ :: :: ,-‘’ : :,-‘ : : : : : : ‘’-,,_ . . . .
        . . ..| : : :/ ‘’-(, :: :: :: ‘’’’’~,,,,,’’ :: ,-‘’ : :,-‘ : : : : : : : : :,-‘’’ . . . .
        . ,-‘ : : : | : : ‘’) : : :¯’’’’~-,: : ,--‘’’ : :,-‘’ : : : : : : : : : ,-‘ :¯’’’’’-,_ .
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        / : : : : : -, :¯’’’’’’’’’’’¯ : : _,,-~’’ : : : : : : : : : : : : : :| : : : : : : : : :
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    • captmorgan555, on 04/03/2008, -1/+7I moused over his profile and saw the following..
      http://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lagzafagm ...
      • Vlatro, on 04/03/2008, -0/+4Lol, ***** brilliant. Thanks.
      • GreatWhiteShaky, on 04/03/2008, -1/+1Lol what a fag.
        but serriously what a freaking dick. he tries to make it sound like what he is doing is just, when in reality what he did is illegal.
  • CaffeinePowered, on 04/03/2008, -0/+10Things like this happen every now and then, I used to play with a guy that worked for ATT on the internet backbone servers. He didn't call a guy out for cheating, but he got his internet suspended for a month for coming onto our Vent server and cussing several people out after getting owned.
    • Rsulliv1, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1That's a much better approach than what this 'leet' guy did. Losing his job offers no benefit to anyone. He could have been a real asset to the gaming community if he knew the signs for tampering and could actually act on them legally.
      • unionaire, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2you really think he'd use the "powers" for good?
  • PacketScan, on 04/03/2008, -0/+14Dumb ASS.
  • bossm4n, on 04/03/2008, -1/+112Way to use those 1337 Comcast tools to track down some 12 year old on XBL who was probably working you over like a little girl.
    • Zarokima, on 04/03/2008, -14/+9He was packet flooding -- cheating -- so he got what he (and all other cheaters) deserve.
      • bossm4n, on 04/03/2008, -2/+13I hate any form of cheating as much as you do, but the course of action he took was inappropriate and unacceptable. It makes me even more concerned about what Comcast or other ISP employees or their contractors are capable of. This is a serious privacy issue above all else.
        • BoneheadFarker, on 04/03/2008, -3/+3It is a privacy issue...but I'd rather have some punk abuse it randomly then Comcast execs abusing it systematically...
          • MWeather, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4Comcast exexs aren't the ones who abuse it, the NSA is.
        • Dgen_X, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2Ok, what about both? How do you feel about that?
          • BoneheadFarker, on 04/03/2008, -0/+0I'm not saying either is right...I'm just saying that one is worse by several magnitudes. Lets not blow the whole thing out of proportion. More people have access to your private data then you realise, and there is no way to change that short of living completely off the grid. So if some ***** cheats abuses his job to cheat at a game, just shrug it off and move on instead of screaming about privacy issues...
        • TheLastFreeMan, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1I love how every anti-cheating comment on this page is dugg down. Stop acting like you're so higher up. The xbox wasn't the thing that deserved to get hit by a hammer.
    • FutureGuy, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2I would call it perfect ending, the cheater got what he deserved and the "elite" got himself fired. Now only if someone can take comcast to task for their privacy gaps. I won't want some "elites" looking at my info.
    • dicknuts, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1He wears his hat like a *****, too.
  • davidjunit, on 04/03/2008, -4/+54I don't blame him for screwing with the kid but he should've kept his mouth shut. Using company resources like that is ALWAYS a fireable offense, at least in North America it is.
    • DeathfireD, on 04/03/2008, -2/+9I agree, after he called the dad he shouldn't have mentioned anything to the kid or on the forums. Packet flooding is illegal but that doesn't give you the right to brag on forums about doing your job.
      • Zarokima, on 04/03/2008, -10/+2I think he should have bragged, but just kept it anonymous. Aside from the idiocy of not remaining anonymous, he definitely deserves praise.
    • Mikhail101, on 04/03/2008, -3/+3Why because the kid cheated, who cares its a game get on with your life. You could always report too.
    • MixedSpleens, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3Lets keep this in context, if I was speeding that doesn't give you the right to come to my house and steal my car. He acted without the authority to do so, he should have just contacted Microsoft, or followed the comcast procedure for reporting network abuse.
    • Verytastycheese, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1His mistake was releasing his identity, and making sure he knew who did it. If he pretended comcast simply detected the DOS attack no one would have looked twice.
  • Ouze, on 04/03/2008, -0/+141Bragging about being an elite agent in a public forum, abusing your work tools, getting caught, and getting fired: it's Comcastic! +5

    bonus points: pics of you from your myspace page with your hat sideways like a douchebag. +10
  • LonesomeFighter, on 04/03/2008, -2/+15so he is important and he uses MySpace? I don't think he was all that important.
  • TM22, on 04/03/2008, -6/+13WTF is "Packet Flooding"?
    • esteskid, on 04/03/2008, -0/+79your xbox gets packets, and when you get too many, it floods, and water gets everywhere
      • captmorgan555, on 04/03/2008, -0/+28I have packet flood insurance just for this reason.
      • Username314, on 04/04/2008, -0/+2He's right. That's why people use surge protectors. They stop the excessive water flow and prevent packet flooding.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 04/03/2008, -1/+5Packets are the bursts of information that your devices send/receive over network connections.

      Your device gets spammed with useless packets, so much so that it increases the latency of your connections.

      Either too many connections will be open preventing additional ones, or the connection will be too busy handling all the fake messages that the real ones take too long to be sent/received.
      • m00nmaster, on 04/08/2008, -0/+1You obviously suck at Balderdash.
    • Whackly, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2I realize this is possible to do and not especially difficult if you know what you are doing but are we supposed to believe that some 12 year old on xbl AND the douche with the sideways hat in the picture knew how to sniff xbl to find the ip addresses that allowed them to screw with each other?
      • doskir, on 04/03/2008, -2/+5xbl uses a direct connection between users so its as easy as routing your console through your pc and entering netstat -a in cmd.exe
      • Whackly, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1Agreed. Even easier if you're running a broadcom chipset router with one of the handier 3rd party firmware flavors. However, just because it's easy for someone who knows what they are doing doesn't mean it's easy for 12 year olds and douche bags.
    • SilentBobSC, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3It's when the intarweb's tubes get full and it takes you 7days to download an email.
    • dicknuts, on 04/03/2008, -1/+1It's like somebody calling your phone, letting it ring once and hanging up 100x in a row. No real calls will get through when they're 'flooding' your line with rings. Same thing with the computer network - your pc (or in this case xbox) can't see the network info it's trying to receive because it's being sent a 'flood' of crap info from somebody trying to interrupt your connection.
    • skarbreeze, on 04/04/2008, -1/+1Are you new to life? Granted not everyone is a networking engineer or writing drivers for NIC's, but... you are on Digg! Wtf man?
  • rufusdog, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3"I'll kill you in my stories!" loser
  • Mikhail101, on 04/03/2008, -6/+12all this coz the guy cheated.... WHAT A ***** TOOL HAHA

    he trying to be like that guy who got his 360 stolen by tracking the kid down except it didnt get stolen and somone cheated online.
    • dicknuts, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1But instead of being a faggy emo douche, he's a sideways-hat-wearing, Ali G facial hair douche.
  • colincornaby, on 04/03/2008, -0/+33""We've contacted Convergys to demand that he be immediately removed from performing any work for Comcast and that they conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate disciplinary action," Moyer says." Who's pwned now?
    • Verytastycheese, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3Convergys won't do dick all, I've worked there... they'll pretend to scold him.
      • jax9999, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2Yeah, at most he's gonna go to another contract...ooooh scary.

        If people only knew...
    • camg188, on 04/04/2008, -0/+0No. He'll probably be fired. He violated corporate rules about data security by looking up the information for personal reasons. He violated the confidentiality agreement (that all employees must sign) by posting screenshots of internally used software. Plus, someone posted a picture from his myspace account of him hitting on a bong.
  • MD2389, on 04/03/2008, -1/+6hahahah

    The only way this could be any more epic is if he got beat down Jay & Silent Bob style. :D
  • zerodaysoon, on 04/03/2008, -0/+21he deleted his myspace!! hahahahahaha

    http://www.myspace.com/Lagzalot
  • smacksaw, on 04/03/2008, -1/+15He could have done the exact same thing, but made it sound more professional and not have it come back to bite him.
  • theVariable, on 04/03/2008, -0/+90Dugg, just because I worked for Convergys and one of the reasons I hate that company is because of their ridiculously low standards for the people they hire.

    I mean, they hired me. Come on!
    • nedzalife, on 04/03/2008, -0/+5Same here (5 yrs ago), work in the same role this guy did too. I'm surprised more stories like this haven't gotten out to the blog media, cause this type of thing happened fairly regularily when I was there
      • Verytastycheese, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Not to mention the teir 1 agents have access to anyones credit card numbers, address, AND social security numbers after hiring anyone off the street and giving 2 weeks training. That place sickens me.
    • ohsoserial, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1I also used to work for Convergys, but for Microsoft. I was an "ELITE AGENT OMG" too, a tier 4 support guy making 19 dollars an hour! Woohoo! What a tool.
      • dezman2003, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1You may have been what was called a "senior tech" but there was never a "tier 4" at the convergys microsoft centers.
    • baconman, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Convergsys sucks a nut.
    • camg188, on 04/04/2008, -0/+0I don't think Convergys sucks per se. I think that working in a call center sucks, whether it's Convergys or not.
    • sykotik, on 04/06/2008, -0/+1No, I worked at Convergys, the really do suck. I did Prodigy dial-up internet tech support. Then moved to xDSL a while after it was introduced. Near the end of that go no-where career (it did get my foot in the door at other places though) I literally called in straight for a month and a half, never once was disciplined, hell no one even noticed.

      In training they told a story about a guy who just came to work, logged into the kiosk time-keeper computer, then went home. At the end of his shift, he'd come back, log out, and then head out again. Apparently he got away with this for something like a year (it was quite a few years ago I worked there, so I could be wrong) but it was definitely WAY longer than anyone should be able to get away with something like that.
  • HydrogenY, on 04/03/2008, -3/+13This demonstrates how irresponsible it is to outsource. If you care about your company's credibility that little to put it in the trust of a third party, you can only expect that whoever you outsource that work to is only going to care about it exponentially less.
    • eddieroger, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2That's really not a fair statement considering that most of the outsourcing companies have rigor around this type of stuff. And, this guy could just as easily have actually worked with Comcast. And from a legal standpoint, since this guy worked for a 3rd party, Comcast can't be held liable when the kid's family rightly sues the pants off Convergys.
      • jax9999, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1omg you don't evern know what's going on in outsourcing companies. it's funny.
    • camg188, on 04/04/2008, -0/+0Outsourcing really didn't have anything to do with it. If that guy worked for directly for Comcast, he would have done the same thing.
      Besides, Comcast is in the cable business, not the customer care business. It makes sense for them to contract for customer care and focus their resources on their core business. Call centers have a lot of infrastructure, training, employee turnover, and scaling issues. The contracted customer care company is more efficient at it because it can reuse resources for multiple customers.
  • jjive, on 04/03/2008, -4/+6This article forgets to mention he is a virgin and only drinks green tea processed by epileptic Japanese retards.
  • BeeArePro, on 04/03/2008, -7/+2That's crazy. I'm actually a regular on that forum, and thought it was funny when he posted that thread. I guess now it's back, and it's gonna kick him in the ass pretty damn hard.
  • dbzer0, on 04/03/2008, -1/+9How stupid and/or arrogant can you get. Sure, the kid deserved it probably but you don't go digging your own grave while you're at it...
  • aoki4, on 04/03/2008, -10/+0yeah man ***** cheaters this is how we do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqbeRep6HXs
    • SkylarScaling, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3That's the dumbest video ever. Don't post crap like that, you just look like a douche.
  • dtzitz, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4[myg0t]
  • LAZZOR, on 04/03/2008, -0/+5All this bragging is obviously an attempt to make up for something...I wonder what?
  • MattFromSeattle, on 04/03/2008, -6/+3What a maroon...
  • Ender008, on 04/03/2008, -1/+15What annoys me most is that this guy enjoyed hearing that kid getting beaten. Then again, I don't really believe that part, it sounds like he just made it up to sound "badass."
  • internetcoward, on 04/03/2008, -1/+6Man this guy needs to get a life. I am sure he is just trying to enact the revenge he was never able to get from his pee pee touching father.
  • Imrand, on 04/03/2008, -0/+25Geez, there so many antagonists in this story. A cheater, an 'elite' tech douche, and Comcast. Who do you cheer for?
  • p51d007, on 04/03/2008, -0/+28What you are looking at, is a person, for probably the first time in his life, has a little "power" over someone, and abused that power. Similar to the TSA agents at the airport who love to screw with people because it is the only time they will be "above" someone else.
  • Stalks, on 04/03/2008, -2/+6"i proceeded to block all of the ips so that my connection could recover"

    Blocking the IPs has no effect on a DDoS. The traffic is still saturating your connection. You are effectively blocking the packets after they have come in through the front door, pointless.
    • SilentBobSC, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Just proving that Mr "13373$7 tech support EVAR!" doesn't know ***** from shinola.
  • Imrand, on 04/03/2008, -6/+10Geez, there so many antagonists in this story. A cheater, an 'elite' tech douche, and Comcast. Who do you cheer for?
  • IZZ0, on 04/03/2008, -0/+17 I think the more appropriate title would have been "Douchebag owns self on Xbox forums".
  • trezegol, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4Wow he must really be smart.... I work as a Device support agent in an ISP and can shut down a modem, lower your speed, use your download limit etc etc, but I don't go around shouting online while I'm gaming. As if gamers aren't touchy about their internet already...
    • je12u, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2I worked for Cablevision as a web then voip support tech for 2 years. Also spent time in the NOC Those super 1337 web based tools are given to EVERY support rep to do their jobs. "yes I can recycle your modem at the push of a button" ...so can all the support people...it's usually the first thing they try!! This guy is easily first level support. WTF the level 2.5 support anyway?!?
      • logicalnoise, on 04/03/2008, -0/+3well level 1 is in india and level 2 is usually a more local office with mostly american employees. 2.5 I guess is a super elite who can work in canada?
    • Verytastycheese, on 04/03/2008, -0/+12.5 is where you send all the cranky customers, and who the tier 1 agents bug for assistance... they're essentially the losers who have worked at convergys for a year + and 'worked their way up' ... I quit there after 4 months.
      • anarchy99, on 04/04/2008, -0/+1wrong you discribed floor support
        there about a dozen or so people like that in lethbrigge anyway

        tier 1 is lethbridge alberta and a few others
        TASC is called 2.5 for some reason they are in edmonton or st. johns
        they fix my and other tier 1 agents issues when we submit ticket to them for issues like APT failed and stuff like that where regular tools wont get the customer online or we dont have access to something needed

  • TheLD, on 04/03/2008, -2/+3He really shouldn't have bragged about this then he might have got away with this. I am glad that the xbox cheater got what was coming to him though because he used one of the two exploits that can't be detected.
  • KonnayahaBoogie, on 04/03/2008, -1/+12That is some lame ass *****. How old is this ***** tool? Please, someone, read that article, look at the photo of this smug bastard, and tell me you don't think he's a ***** tool?

    Seriously, the kid's ***** dad beats him up, and this douche acts like it's totally acceptable, all over a game on Live. A GAME. Well, it's not ***** acceptable, I hope you get fired and never work in the IT or food industry ever again. I hope you're stamping tickets for the rest of your life, you *****.

    Peace.
    • zeromous, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2I hate cheaters and I for one agree.

      Customer support is unprofessional enough without d-bags like this tech.

      Two d-bags don't make a cool-guy.
  • grgt1994, on 04/03/2008, -1/+16OK, who believes there is a shred of truth to this story? A tech nobody from an outsourced support company calls the kid's father and tells him that the kid was cheating with his xBox. The father becomes so enraged upon receipt of a random call from a nobody that he proceeds immediatly to beat his son and destroy the very expensive toy he just bought for him a few months ago. Ya, that all sounds credible.
    • logicalnoise, on 04/03/2008, -3/+2....yeah that's the most outrageous thing ever conceived! no way it happened!
    • jstone, on 04/03/2008, -2/+3No, he told the father that his son was conducting 'illegal activities' using the Xbox. I would also imagine that he said the father could be liable.
      • grgt1994, on 04/03/2008, -2/+4Oh ya, that seals it. If I got a call from a hot-head claiming my child was conducting 'illegal activities' (even though he's inthe same room - currently PLAYING A GAME), I'd be immediately convinced, so convinced in fact that I'd beat the ***** out of him without hesitations, and smash the box. Yep, now I see it.
        • jstone, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1I know some people that would react very poorly to such an announcement, especially if the caller properly identified himself as a Comcast technician. There are a lot of people that are paranoid about computers, video games, etc.
    • zeromous, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4Very expensive? 360s are practically as disposable as computers get.

      And YES this is real. Covergys is most definately a real company that provides comcast support, and this sort of thing happens there all the time. Just about every kid who can read but can't get a real job in my city has worked for Convergys at some point.... and I mean, look at the guy....would you hire him?

      CONVERGYS WOULD! :D
      • theojanke, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Ahh Winnipeg.."One great city."
        • o0JoeCool0o, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Id rather stab myself in the leg with a fork then move to winterpeg.
    • HowboutBBQribs, on 05/03/2008, -0/+0I used to work at the Winnipeg Convergys (unfortunately) and I know a lot of people that still do and they've confirmed this actually happened. He did everything he said he did except for what happened when he called the kids place, no one knows what actually happened on the call except for the D-bag and based on the "l33tness" of his post I'm sure he embellished a bit . I guess his Tier 2.5 powers failed him when he was escorted from the premises the same day he posted this. His bragging about it to everyone on the call centre floor ensured it reached management within a few hours.
  • FearisFailure, on 04/03/2008, -2/+0Well if this is true its about damn time somebody did something to stop it. I like tweaking xbox just as much as the next guy. But I never take it online to get myself ahead of the crowd.
  • randomizer9, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4I call shenanigans. That said, when I worked for a cable company, I knew people who would reformat the DVR's of customers who got on their bad sides. Hell, I almost did it myself once...
  • keitho, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1ha! i used to work for convergys. it was about 5 years ago that i quit that place. when i was there, we were doing sales for dell home software and peripherals as well as system sales. the place was pretty much ignored by dell and we were trained on the software (which was buggy) and thats it. we had no real product training or anything. we were just told, sell X % of your calls, sell X dollars per sale and get X % of your sales to go to the dps account. then the outsourcing to india began and wreaked havok on our abilities to do our jobs. eventually the contract mercifully expired but i was done. at the time, they were a call center for charter communications, sunbeam, and palm. it doesn't sound like much has changed since i was there.
    • weside, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1I worked at that same one you did! I was a manager on the Charter account.
  • Comanche, on 04/03/2008, -1/+4True or not, its an abuse of power. This guy just pwned himself when Convergys and Comcast work together to find him.
  • TheRealChris, on 04/03/2008, -1/+3I'm pretty sure I worked at the same Convergys center that this guy did. Only for two weeks though, what a crappy company. Every employee is crooked. Let that be a warning to all you Comcast customers, your personal information is in "good" hands.
    • spankr, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Is it the one in WinterPeg? There's a "Mark Ribeiro" in Winnipeg...
    • Verytastycheese, on 04/03/2008, -1/+1Probably the Edmonton center, where I worked. And yes, ALL of your personal information
  • kurtwinter, on 04/03/2008, -1/+6Cheaters are the scum of the earth and get whatever is coming to them. Nothing like plonking down $50 for a new FPS just to login and "boom headshot" every 5 seconds from some script kiddie *****.
    • SilentBobSC, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1Regardless, it's not worth having ANOTHER script kiddie abuse the access he's given and then brag about how much he can and does abuse that power.
  • OMRebel, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2I call BS on that guy's story. No father is gonna just take the word of some kid (that's what that tech was, just a kid) calling and proceed to beat up his son, then go find a hammer, smash the XBox, all the while having some stranger on the phone. And then put his child on the phone for some kid to talk smack to him.

    He was just some punk kid seeking attention, and thinking making up some "power trip" story like this would make him seem cool to his friends (if he has any).
  • nickert0n, on 04/03/2008, -6/+4hahahaha I worked at the same Convergys as this guy did but not on the Comcast account, its in Edmonton Alberta. What I think he did to that kid is good cause im freaking sick of little ***** F#$# kids on XBL saying your moma last night jokes and the what not. And by the way Convergys is a ***** hole dont ever work there. And as pertaining to the article about "out sourced canadian labour" ummmm ***** YOU =p
    • spankr, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2He's in Winnipeg. MB, NOT Edmonton...
      • djmak, on 04/03/2008, -0/+0what is this guys name, he look familiar (i live in winnipeg too)
    • o0JoeCool0o, on 04/03/2008, -1/+2Stop talking your making canada look bad.
  • eliot2000, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2This is what happens when you fire your own workers and hire people you have no control or influence over.
    Everyone in this story had it coming.
    • bobburn, on 04/03/2008, -0/+1He's pretty much already fired (I've got a friend that works for Convergys, if they get a call from any of their employers about someone's behavior, that person is gone):

      ""We have identified the person who created this inappropriate post as an employee of Convergys, a third-party vendor who provides technical customer support for Comcast customers," Comcast spokesperson Jenni Moyer tells us. Moyer calls the tech's behavior "completely unacceptable," given he ignored proper protocols for reporting network abuse. He potentially ran afoul of several laws as well.

      "We've contacted Convergys to demand that he be immediately removed from performing any work for Comcast and that they conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate disciplinary action," Moyer says."
  • Etchii, on 04/03/2008, -0/+6Bah...Noob. Real power comes from 1) having it, and 2) not being in the public eye.
  • Teh1337Pirate, on 04/03/2008, -0/+2Just judging by his picture he looks like a piece of *****.
  • spankr, on 04/03/2008, -0/+4Winnipeg it is (there's a Convergys call center there) - looks like this is him:
    http://tinyurl.com/2s9ekm

    That's a "friend's" profile Google cached - from the page:
    "Mark Ribero aka Sir. Lagsalot"

    Facebook Profile:
    http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=Mark+Ribeiro
  • captmorgan555, on 04/03/2008, -0/+11http://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lagzafagm ...

    Moused over his biography and this little gem of an ad popped up :D
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