FORT COLLINS - The Mountain States Better Business Bureau, based in Fort Collins, is alerting Northern Colorado and Wyoming businesses to an e-mail "phishing" scam that relies on messages falsely claiming to be from the BBB.

The messages masquerade as notices that complaints about businesses' services have been filed with the BBB, and invite recipients to open Internet links to retrieve more information.

Phishing is a term that describes fraudulent means of obtaining information electronically. Common examples are credit card or bank e-mails that ask recipients to verify account information.

"We've gotten calls about these almost daily from businesses in our region," Mountain States BBB spokeswoman Barbara Read said.

The nationwide problem first surfaced when a Georgia company had its computer system hacked by a "Trojan horse" virus that captures information and transmits it to another Web site.

Since then, the virus has replicated itself, spawning new attacks.

"This is the fourth batch of it," Read said. "We originally thought it was a one-time deal. But it comes in waves, and this is about our fourth wave."

The U.S. Secret Service is actively investigating the BBB case. The agency's Electronic Crimes Task Force has issued two subpoenas in the case, based upon computer IP addresses that investigators tracked.

The phishing e-mails come from non-existent addresses, showing up on messages as consumer-complaints@bbb.org or and 06066D@bbb.com. The BBB asks that businesses receiving suspicious e-mails forward them to the lead investigator, Special Agent Casey Stumpf, Casey.Stumpf@usss.dhs.gov.

To view a sample of the bogus e-mails, log on at www.mountainstates.bbb.org, then click on the "news flash & alerts" button.