First it was a fake Sidney Crosby shilling for money to fix up a Minnesota park. On Wednesday, it was Evgeni Malkin’s turn.
MySpace on Tuesday yanked a page claiming to be hosted by Crosby after lawyers for the Penguins’ captain contacted the social networking site. Facebook followed suit.
At 4:14 a.m. yesterday, the fundraising plea moved to “Geno Mano Mev 86,” a MySpace page claiming to belong to Malkin.
“Fundraiser es up. Ples mesg fur mur details. Goal is 2,100,” a message read under the heading “Park.”
Malkin’s agents in Los Angeles could not be reached for comment. As with the Crosby page, Penguins spokesman Tom McMillan said the Russian center has nothing to do with it.
“I think it’s very obvious that all this stuff is bogus,” McMillan said.
The messages reportedly sought to raise $5,100 to rebuild a playground at Phelps Park in Minneapolis. The money was to be sent via Western Union to Stephanie Biddlecom, 23, a professional wrestler.
Biddlecom could not be reached for comment yesterday. On Tuesday, she told the Tribune-Review she raised more than $2,000. She denied being behind the Crosby site.
“No, that’s not me,” Biddlecom said. “That’s Sidney.”
Although they know of Crosby, Minneapolis park officials said he is not involved in any fundraising effort for them. In fact, they said the park in question does not need repairs. They said they had never heard of Biddlecom.
Kristi Briggs, a Penguins fan from Indianapolis, filed two complaints this week concerning the fake Crosby and Malkin pages with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, an effort of the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center in Richmond, Va.
Because Briggs did not lose money by donating to the cause, her complaints will not be passed on to law enforcement officials, said Craig Butterworth, a spokesman with the National White Collar Crime Center. That could change if more complaints are filed, he said.
“We still want the information, because it helps us identify emerging crime trends,” Butterworth said.
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