Spoofing Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage has been spoofed--and he's not laughing.
An email address once used by the Oscar-winning actor has been appropriated by somebody, or somebodies, with inappropriate intentions.
An electronic crimes task force consisting of the FBI, Secret Service and Los Angeles Police is investigating the case, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. The probe was opened recently, possibly on Tuesday, Miller said.
The cyber breach was first reported Tuesday by TV's Celebrity Justice.
In a statement released to the syndicated show, Cage's camp distances itself from the email handle known as ncsaturn.7@aol.com.
"Nicolas Cage would like to make the general public aware that somebody has illegally and fraudulently been using the following email address pretending to be Nicolas Cage," the statement said.
The star's reps had no further comment. Per Celebrity Justice, the real Cage is peeved because the fake Cage has been using the old AOL account to send out "lewd sexual emails" with "graphic sexual messages."
Andrew Briney, publisher of Information Security, a trade magazine for information technology professionals, said Cage's doppelganger likely is operating with insider info--the person would have to know, for instance, that the email address once was valid.
But once that one bit of information is confirmed, watch out--spoofing an email address, Briney said, is "painstakingly easy."
In plain terms, an email spoof, Briney said, "means you're impersonating or masquerading as somebody else."
Miller said it was unknown if the Cage case was a matter of identity theft.
Cage, 41, who had his mug and hairline stolen by John Travolta in the 1997 actioneer Face/Off, is currently at work battling evil in Ghost Rider, due out next year.





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