femalenetwork.com

Here's a scary thought: Celebrity posers are getting better that they have even led to believe media and a celebrities' close friends that they're the real person they love to emulate.

Recently, the Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP) got faked by a "Heart Evangelista" account on Facebook, which the real Heart Evangelista confirmed a hoax. PEP also reported that Heart has her own Facebook account, which contains even less blog entries and photos, but are obviously more genuine because of the photos of the actress with her friends. Facebook's unique networking system also helped verify Heart's real account, since there was a major difference in the people listed in the real and fake accounts. What's scary is, even Heart's friends thought the fake account was real and even left messages for her there!

Thrilling as it is to find your favorite celebrity online and even add him or her as your friend (we've done it ourselves), were you rattled upon hearing the news? There are actually real profiles created by celebrities themselves, and most of them are open to the public with the celebrities' consent. Zach Braff of the comedy series Scrubs, for example, has a public MySpace account that is often updated simultaneously with his official website. Other celebrities on MySpace with confirmed official accounts include Alanis Morisette, Lily Allen, Alicia Keys, Diablo Cody, and even controversial pop princess Britney Spears. A couple of weeks ago, Lindsay Lohan was rumored to be using Facebook under the name Lindsay Ronson.

Fan profiles, in the meantime, often contain disclaimers that deny the account creators' relation to the celebrity. But after an incident like this, will you be willing to add celebrity profiles claiming to be created by the celebrities themselves?

With the amount of information anyone can access online these days, it really is easy to fake accounts--it can even happen to you or any of your friends. Of course, it always pays to be careful, whether it's a celebrity or a real friend you're adding or sending a message to!