The Better Business Bureau is warning businesses and consumers in Hawai'i and on the Mainland of an Internet scam using the BBB name and a false BBB e-mail address to lure recipients to click on potentially damaging hyperlinks.

The fake e-mails were sent from a company in Georgia whose computer system was hacked Wednesday night, according to the BBB.

That firm's computer system generated thousands of counterfeit messages sent to businesses and consumers in the U.S. and Canada purporting to be a complaint filed with the BBB.

The perpetrators of the scam appear to be exploiting the "good name" of the BBB to gain the confidence of businesses, the BBB said.

As of yesterday, only one Hawai'i company had reported receiving the fake e-mail, local BBB officials said.

The e-mail has a false return address of operations@bbb.org and a phishing hyperlink citing a BBB complaint case number. Recipients who click on the hyperlink are directed to download a document that is actually an executable file believed to be some form of a computer virus, the BBB said.

"All recipients are advised that any e-mail from the operations@bbb.org address is not coming from any BBB and should be considered counterfeit," the organization said in a press release.

Dwight Kealoha, chief executive officer of the Better Business Bureau of Hawaii said anyone who receives an e-mail from the operations@bbb.org address should delete the message immediately without clicking on the link.

For more information about phishing and for tips on averting other scams, visit www.bbbonline.org/IDtheft/.