February 11, 2009 6:06 PM
- Text
Paris Embroiled In Voicemail Scandal
(CBS)
Is Paris Hilton a voicemail hacker? Calling card services provider, SpoofCard.com, issued a press release Tuesday that said they had terminated the heiress as a customer because she and more than 50 others subscribers allegedly obtained unauthorized access into other customers' voicemail.
Actress Lindsay Lohan, with whom Hilton reportedly is feuding, was one of the people whose voicemail was broken into. SpoofCard, which sells calling cards that give callers the ability to change what someone sees on their caller ID, found out about the voicemail hacking when they reviewed customer call records.
"My client has informed me that they are absolutely certain Paris Hilton is involved based on the records that they have," SpoofCard's attorney Mark Del Bianco told The ShowBuzz. "They have records of all the calls that are made through their service."
Del Bianco wouldn't comment on whether Hilton hacked into Lohan's voicemail, but he did say that SpoofCard plans to cooperate with any law enforcement investigation into the incident and added that the company has beefed up security.
"We have taken steps to block access for people using our service to get into Miss Lohan's voicemail," he said. "We simply don't want our service used to do this."
"The matter is being dealt with by the lawyers," Lohan's rep, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, said in a statement to The ShowBuzz on Wednesday.
Hilton's rep, Elliot Mintz, is defending his client. "She's not being accused of hacking into Lindsay's device. As far as I'm concerned, that's the most important thing I'd like to get out there before this turns into some unpleasant feud, you know, the usual stuff," he told The ShowBuzz Wednesday.
"In the past, there's been some discord between the two of them; the two of them have had their moments, they've had their issues," Mintz added. "So we don't want people to think that, then see this press release (about this story) and conclude that that's something that Paris would do, which of course, I don't believe she would."
Mintz says he has talked with Hilton, who is currently in Japan promoting her new album, about the allegation. "Because of the time difference, I haven't really had any time to discuss it with her in any detail. When she comes back, I'll get a much clearer response to what's being said about her," he said.
Back in July, Paris was embroiled in a similar messaging scandal. Lohan's publicist told the New York Post that someone stole the password to Lohan's BlackBerry and then sent "disgusting and very mean messages that everyone thought were coming from Lindsay."
"Some people think Paris may have been involved because the wording of the messages sounds very familiar," Zelnick told the Post in July.
At the time, Mintz called the accusations "silly, untrue, and unfortunate." Zelnick later said that Paris wasn't the person who sent the messages.
So why do these stories about Paris keep popping up? "Beats me," says Mintz. "I tend to think that much of this stuff originates with other people. I'm guessing but I don't think that Lindsay sits around dreaming up ways of sending out press releases that are negative about Paris. And I certainly know that Paris has never instructed me to say anything of a negative nature about Lindsay ... if you trace the history of these things it's usually a friend or enemy of one that's trying to create problems."
By Amy Bonawitz
Actress Lindsay Lohan, with whom Hilton reportedly is feuding, was one of the people whose voicemail was broken into. SpoofCard, which sells calling cards that give callers the ability to change what someone sees on their caller ID, found out about the voicemail hacking when they reviewed customer call records.
"My client has informed me that they are absolutely certain Paris Hilton is involved based on the records that they have," SpoofCard's attorney Mark Del Bianco told The ShowBuzz. "They have records of all the calls that are made through their service."
Del Bianco wouldn't comment on whether Hilton hacked into Lohan's voicemail, but he did say that SpoofCard plans to cooperate with any law enforcement investigation into the incident and added that the company has beefed up security.
"We have taken steps to block access for people using our service to get into Miss Lohan's voicemail," he said. "We simply don't want our service used to do this."
"The matter is being dealt with by the lawyers," Lohan's rep, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, said in a statement to The ShowBuzz on Wednesday.
Hilton's rep, Elliot Mintz, is defending his client. "She's not being accused of hacking into Lindsay's device. As far as I'm concerned, that's the most important thing I'd like to get out there before this turns into some unpleasant feud, you know, the usual stuff," he told The ShowBuzz Wednesday.
"In the past, there's been some discord between the two of them; the two of them have had their moments, they've had their issues," Mintz added. "So we don't want people to think that, then see this press release (about this story) and conclude that that's something that Paris would do, which of course, I don't believe she would."
Mintz says he has talked with Hilton, who is currently in Japan promoting her new album, about the allegation. "Because of the time difference, I haven't really had any time to discuss it with her in any detail. When she comes back, I'll get a much clearer response to what's being said about her," he said.
Back in July, Paris was embroiled in a similar messaging scandal. Lohan's publicist told the New York Post that someone stole the password to Lohan's BlackBerry and then sent "disgusting and very mean messages that everyone thought were coming from Lindsay."
"Some people think Paris may have been involved because the wording of the messages sounds very familiar," Zelnick told the Post in July.
At the time, Mintz called the accusations "silly, untrue, and unfortunate." Zelnick later said that Paris wasn't the person who sent the messages.
So why do these stories about Paris keep popping up? "Beats me," says Mintz. "I tend to think that much of this stuff originates with other people. I'm guessing but I don't think that Lindsay sits around dreaming up ways of sending out press releases that are negative about Paris. And I certainly know that Paris has never instructed me to say anything of a negative nature about Lindsay ... if you trace the history of these things it's usually a friend or enemy of one that's trying to create problems."
By Amy Bonawitz
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