An NBC reporter dicovered what it was like to be pursued by the 'geek paparazzi' after she tried unsuccessfully to go undercover at a hackers conference.

Michelle Madigan, a reporter with Dateline, was apparently hoping to get one of the delegates at DefCon to confess to having committed a crime while being filmed on a hidden camera. But her cover was blown when she unwittingly confided her plans to a DefCon insider, resulting in scores of hackers and other reporters pursuing her through the conference car park armed with video cameras.

A clip of the incident, in which Ms Madigan is chased by a group of breathless hackers and other reporters, has now been watched more than 300,000 times on YouTube.

DefCon is an annual convention for hackers in Las Vegas which has strict rules preventing reporters from filming attendees without their consent.

The conference is known to be attended by federal law enforcement agencies such as the FBI so that their operatives, who go undercover, can learn about the latest techniques of computer criminals.

Accordingly to a report on Wired.com, Ms Madigan was attempting to out just such a federal agent, when the chair of one session last Friday announced that the room was going to play a game of 'Spot the Undercover Reporter'.

"There's one in here right now," Jeff Moss, DefCon's founder said.

Realising that her photo was about to be displayed on a projector and that her plan had been foiled, Ms Madigan leapt up and moved swiftly towards the door, with, according to one report, more than 100 delegates in pursuit.

A YouTube video of the incident shows her racing hurriedly towards her car, much in the manner of a subject on one of Dateline's own series, To Catch a Predator.

One of the band in pursuit is heard to say: 'You must feel a bit like Lindsay Lohan," at which point another responds: "I don't know. Lindsay Lohan's pretty smart."

Ms Madigan was reportedly asked four times whether she would like to register for the conference as a reporter, but declined, electing instead to attend as a regular delegate.

An NBC spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

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