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Where there are swine flu fears, there are scammers

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Scammers have been flooding the Internet with e-mails peddling counterfeit drugs as cures for the swine flu virus, warn offcials of McAfee Inc., the computer security firm.

Many of the e-mails direct recipients to fake online pharmacies, where crooks steal credit card data and other information, said the firm’s director of research, Dave Marcus.

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He estimated that swine flu scams accounted for 3% to 4% of all e-mail spam today.

Some of the subject lines of e-mails you might simply want to delete:

• First US swine flu victims!

• US swine flu statistics

• Salma Hayek caught swine flu!

• Swine flu worldwide!

• Swine flu in Hollywood!

• Swine flu in USA

And, of course:

• Madonna caught swine flu!

-- Thomas Maugh II

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