Bonn  - Internet users should be extra suspicious of an ongoing wave of e-mail messages claiming to hold links to love letters or video clips.

These messages are currently the weapon of choice by hackers trying to build what are known as Storm botnets, which enslave the computers of private users, warns the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn.

Suspicious e-mail messages are best deleted immediately. Anyone clicking on the links is rerouted to a web site that contains a file to be downloaded - naturally containing malicious software.

Users of the Internet Explorer browser run the additional danger of the malicious software exploiting a weakness in the browser to sneak onto their computers without being actively selected for download at all. Botnets consist in some cases of several tens of thousands of computers which - unknown to the user - are being controlled remotely. The botnet operators use the networks to send spam or run phishing attacks. (dpa)