The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) yesterday advised the public not to open spam e-mails that appear to come from the agency. The e-mails, which warn victims that they are being monitored by the FBI, contain a virus-infected attachment.

According to the alert the e-mails tell recipients that their internet use is being monitored by the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center and that they have accessed illegal web sites. The e-mails then direct recipients to open an attachment and answer questions. The attachment contains a virus.

The FBI confirmed that the e-mails, which seem to have an fbi.gov sender domain, do not come from the agency. It stressed that the FBI does not send unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner.

Recipients of the infected e-mail are asked to report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov/

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