Britain's Sky News sent PCs to six IT repair shops only to find that their private information was accessed by those to whom the machines were entrusted, the channel said.
It found some laptops had their "passwords, log-in details and holiday photographs [copied] to a portable memory stick by a technician".
Another shop charged customers for non-existent work and simple faults were misdiagnosed, Sky said.
Sky alleged a repairer hacked into their customer's financial accounts.
Obviously, if this story is true, it shows there are bad eggs in any industry.
Situations like this makes the break-fix industry into the equivalent of a dodgy car repairer - you send your car in for one thing and discover it has other problems and all the change in your car has disappeared as well as your favourite CD.
IT has become part of our lives.
PCs are no longer machines we use at work to leave behind at the end of the day.
Most of us have a laptop and or a PC which we use for work and play. On these machines are intimate details of our financial accounts, reading and watching habits.
When hardware breaks down, it's like losing your mobile phone. You are left thinking what a pain having to input all your information, favourite bookmarks, software etc into a new machine with a keyboard that hasn't got the same groove and dents as your normal computer.
So giving hardware - a precious asset - over to an IT repair men must make customers quake in their shoes.
How do you reassure your customers their machines will come back in good nick? Have you had any bizarre complaints from customers about their recently fixed machines? Is this activity is widespread in Australia?
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