NEW DELHI: Love is blind, and so are lovers. With Valentine's day just around the corner people's thoughts turn to romance and flowers.

However, for cyber criminals it heralds another opportune moment to draw an unsuspecting user in.

In the weeks running up to February 14, many phishing emails are already doing the rounds that promote love or dating opportunities.

Many of the most common scams around this February rely on existing vulnerabilities in software, spam, fake sites and distraction techniques.

"Organized criminal units have a long history of timing their attacks to coincide with popular occasions in order to achieve maximum success," said Surendra Singh, regional director, SAARC and India, Websense, Inc.

"Valentine's Day 2009 is a day that is similarly marked on the criminals' calendar for targeted attacks."

The Websense Security labs have seen several fake Valentine's Day sites serving up malware, an increase in adult dating and 'healthcare' related email spam, and blended email/web/phone techniques promoting premium rate phone services , which are a good way to make a fast buck, said a press release.

"The usual suspects have emerged as expected, with Valentine spam emails and Trojans. The same characteristics have been used in other recent campaigns such as Obama spam and New Year greetings cards.

The public are becoming more aware of these however, and it's getting harder to trick people this way," explained Surendra Singh. "Cybercriminals are also taking their efforts to social networks, given its rising popularity and potential to manipulate the user through 'friend' messages".

There are a few things that people need to be alert for malicious content. Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network has received reports of a new Waledac variant in the wild, said the release.

There are a number of Fake Valentine's Day sites serving up malware courtesy of the Waledac gang (or at least exhibiting the same characteristics as them).

The sites show colourful images such as puppy dogs or a picture of 12 pretty hearts and ask "Guess, which one is for you?" Unfortunately the web page is one big image and a single click from a tricked user commences the download of Trojans named "onlyyou.exe" or "youandme.exe" which are not as friendly as they sound.

The Trojan can connect to remote websites to receive commands and send information about the compromised system, said the release.

Spammers are using our appetite for social networking and turning to properties such as Twitter, Facebook and Myspace as new ways to trick users.

Be wary of links posted by strangers on your blog, chances are the link may lead to you to dangerous locations.

Spammers are cashing in, literally, on our increased confidence in shopping and researching online, Websense said. As people turn to the internet to order flowers, chocolates and other gifts so too are the cyber criminals turning to these sites to compromise them and steal data, it added.

Singh said that criminals are taking advantage of the growing number of Web 2.0 properties, which allows user-generated content.

“It's clear that businesses need security with real-time protection, but until this becomes the norm, cybercriminals will continue stealing data and breaking hearts,” he added.

So folks, this Valentine be alert and don't let the criminals blind you.