Latest fraud: Crooks creating clones of bank websites.

• Position: Marketing News

Warning! Computer hackers may attempt to create a counterfeit copy of your bank's website.

And, they will try to fool your customers into submitting personal, financial or password data.

Marketers who want to uphold their bank's good reputation need to be aware of this growing financial fraud, which is a form of the scam known as "phishing"

Among the customers of banks and credit card companies that have been victimized recently by phishing are those of Citibank, Visa, First USA, Bank One, NatWest and Westpac Bank, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an organization that provides information about phishing, e-mail and identity fraud.

The fraud operates several ways. One approach involves the mass distribution of phony e-mail messages to bank or credit card customers. The messages contain return addresses, Internet links and branding that appear to come from a financial institution. The messages often cite a "security" problem and direct the customer to the counterfeit website in order to resolve the problem. The messages are intended to fool the recipients into divulging personal authentication data, such as account usernames and passwords, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and so forth. "Because these e-mails look 'official,' up to 20 percent of recipients may respond to them," says James Hannon, a spokesperson for the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

Once a customer enters his bank account...