While banks work to clean up their money mess, con artists are working to clean out your account.

They're zeroing in on customers of Washington Mutual and JP Morgan Chase, but every bank customer is a potential target.

These crooks are using the financial crisis to cash in on your economic fear. Make the wrong response and they'll clean out your account in seconds.

It's a new wave of e-mail spam called "phishing" that claims to be from Chase bank. I got three in one day.

One promises you $50 for answering an online banking survey. Click to answer and you get what looks like an official survey from Chase bank asking for account information- it's a fake.
Another email claims to be an account verification alert.

Unlike previous imposter scams which claim there's been a security breach or technical problem, this latest version goes to extra lengths to tie in the economy, with an elaborate explanation about the financial crisis, and a threat, that unverified accounts will be shut down in 3 business days.

By using the Chase name, scammers are reaching potentially millions of costumers of JP Morgan Chase, and recently acquired Washington Mutual.

And, in what may be a first- the scammers are using the name of an actual Chase executive. The email is signed by Chief Operations Officer Carter Franke.

I alerted Chase - Chase is alerting bank officials.

In a statement, bank spokesperson Darcy Donahoe-Dimon said, "It is definitely not a legitimate email, as you already know. Carter Franke is actually in the Chase marketing department and this type of communication would not come from here.

"As a simple reminder Chase would not ask customers to:

Send e-mail that requires you to enter personal information directly into the e-mail.
Send e-mail threatening to close your account if you do not take the immediate action of providing personal information,
Send e-mail asking you to reply by sending personal information ."

According to one Internet security investigation, the phony website is registered in Turkey.

Internet detectives are working to shut down the bogus sites as soon as they're uncovered, replacing them with warnings about copy cat "phishing" scams, that steal millions of dollars every year.

There's no word on the scope of this latest attack, but despite years of warnings about this deception, thousands of consumers fall for the trick virtually every day.

By one account, the money stolen from customer accounts, averages more than a thousand dollars a hit.

If you get an e-mail from a bank or any business that ask for account information, just delete it and spread the word! In fact, forward this story!

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