You might be seeing a fake....

The conventional wisdom is that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But in the digital age, that's often not the case for high-profile professionals being targeted on MySpace.com.

The social-networking site is filled with dozens of user pages that purport to be profile pages created by business luminaries Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Martha Stewart and Donald Trump.

Many of the phony pages appear legitimate: They have flattering photos and list seemingly correct personal details, such as income, astrology signs and marital status. But bits of misinformation — and even malicious tidbits — are often tucked in.

For instance, some of the phony pages for Stewart, who has never created a profile for herself on MySpace, are laced with risqué sexual comments.

The bios are created by rogue users who take advantage of how easy it is to build a free MySpace page. In just minutes — by entering falsified data such as a user name and e-mail address — almost anyone can set up a personal "space" on the site.

MySpace founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe have official MySpace pages, though DeWolfe sets his on "private," an option that limits viewing of personal details to pre-approved users.

But for most of the well-known executives such as Trump and Buffett, the alleged profiles are fake. A spokeswoman for Gates, subject of more than 30 profiles, couldn't confirm whether he had a genuine MySpace page. A spokesman for Jobs, the subject of at least five, did not return calls.

Poseurs tend to target boldface names: Among MySpace's more than 100 million profiles are scads of sham bios of singers, movie stars and politicians.

But even folks with less visibility have been targeted, and for some, the digital fakery has had real-world consequences. San Francisco public TV host Josh Kornbluth was the victim of a phony profile that contained his photos, as well as offensive sexual content. In June, managers at his employer, KQED, received anonymous e-mails from people who said they saw the profile and demanded that Kornbluth be fired.

"It's really scary ... especially for a public broadcast station," says Michael Isip, KQED's TV production and programming director. "To have someone presented in such a damaging and demeaning way could have a harmful impact on the station as a whole."

Fake profiles removed on request

MySpace's terms of service prohibit impersonations, says Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer. If MySpace receives a complaint from the victim of a falsified profile, it removes the page, he says.

But without a court order or subpoena, MySpace will not release any information it may have about who created the fake site. "There are privacy laws that govern disclosure of information like this," says Nigam.

If discovered, impostors can face serious legal charges, such as fraud, if the site does not clearly come across as a spoof, says Monica Richman, an attorney at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner.

Despite that, the phony pages keep popping up. Some users create them on a lark, "just because they can," says psychologist Robert Butterworth. Others want to satisfy an unmet desire or an "alter ego" to be something they're not, such as an industry titan, he says.

As for the mean-spirited profiles, Butterworth says, that's often an outlet to "register their dissatisfaction with that person."

Michael Solomon, a consumer behavior specialist, adds that some defamatory profiles are also likely to be "a classic case of compensation" where people "feel better by tearing others down."

Shmuel Tennenhaus, 25 created an unauthorized profile of American Media editorial director Bonnie Fuller for a different reason. He says he hoped to stand out enough to land a spot on an upcoming reality show about her company, which publishes the Star and National Enquirer.

He enlisted a teen friend and used Internet research to create the Fuller site. "With a search engine, you can find out plenty of information," says Tennenhaus.

He got some things right, but not all. "He said I was 5-foot-6," says Fuller, who is 5-foot-4. Her astrology sign is wrong. She's a Virgo, not a Sagittarius.

Fuller says she's going to let the unauthorized site stand for now. "It's clearly not malicious."

Buffett's team is more protective. Berkshire Hathaway is working with MySpace to remove the fake profiles of its CEO.

Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., which bought MySpace last summer for $580 million, doesn't have an official MySpace profile. However, even he's not immune to MySpace intruders.

Dozens of fake Murdoch profiles have been posted, and at least one questions the motives of a traditional media executive in buying an Internet upstart.

"I just bought MySpace.com, soon I will own the rest of the Internet," writes an impostor who claims to be the media mogul. "I aspire to become the most powerful man in the world."

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