The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said call centers in Kansas City, Mo., and Washington, D.C., have begun receiving a large number of complaints by consumers who received an e-mail that has the appearance of being sent from the FDIC.

The e-mail informs the recipient that Department of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has advised the FDIC to suspend all deposit insurance on the recipient’s bank account due to suspected violations of the USA Patriot Act. The e-mail further indicates that deposit insurance will be suspended until personal identity, including bank account information, can be verified.

The FDIC said it did not send this e-mail and is a fraudulent attempt to obtain personal information from consumers. Financial institutions and consumers should not access the link provided within the body of the e-mail and should not under any circumstances provide any personal information through this media, the FDIC said.

The agency is attempting to identify the source of the e-mails and disrupt the transmission. Until this is achieved, consumers are asked to report any similar attempts to obtain this information to the FDIC by sending information to alert@fdic.gov.

Yahoo contains worm

Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday it has contained a malicious program aimed at the millions of people who use its e-mail service, which ranks as the world’s largest.

The worm, dubbed “Yamanner,” infected a recipient’s computer as soon as the toxic e-mail was opened. It then scanned contact lists for additional targets, according to security software maker Symantec Corp.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo said “a very small fraction” of its more than 200 million e-mail accounts were infected Monday when the problem was first identified. The worm didn’t affect the next version of Yahoo’s e-mail service, which remains in its test, or “beta,” phase.

“We have taken steps to resolve the issue and protect our users from further attacks of this worm,” Yahoo spokeswoman Kelley Podboy said. “The solution has been automatically distributed to all Yahoo Mail customers, and requires no additional action on the part of the user.”

— From news wires