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canopic jug writes:

Law enforcement has been fielding several calls per month for a long time now from new victims of a team of scammers impersonating powerful women in the film industry. The scammers appear to be working out of Indonesia and fleece victims for large sums, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars each. In addition to the financial aspect, the main contact for the frauds appears to go an extra mile to engage, manipulate, and toy with the victims.

For more than a year, some of the most powerful women in entertainment — including Amy Pascal, Kathleen Kennedy, Stacey Snider and a 'Homeland' director — have been impersonated by a cunning thief who targets insiders with promises of work, then bilks them out of thousands of dollars. The Hollywood Reporter has obtained exclusive audio recordings of the savvy imposter as victims come forward and a global investigation heats up.

From The Holywood Reporter: Hunting the Con Queen of Hollywood: Who's the "Crazy Evil Genius" Behind a Global Racket?

[Ed note: I'll admit this is not in line with our usual tech-related fare. I was torn whether or not to run it. Then again, it is the weekend and the story has bearing on how can one really trust something as being what it appears to be (think along the lines of malware). I can spot spam e-mails from a mile away, but that's mostly because it's in my area of expertise. How well would I resist such a scam were it perpetrated on me is another matter. What do my fellow Soylentils think? Should I have just binned it? Was it worth running? Maybe only one per weekend? --martyb]

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