Oregon Department of Justice

Attorney General John Kroger is warning consumers about an email spyware scam.

The email from "WebHosting" says: "Dear Customer, we have received your order and will be processing it shortly. The details of the order are below."

The email claims that the consumer will be billed $4.99 a month for the Web hosting and $14.95 annually for domain name registration.

The email has a link to "log in," but consumers who click on it will instead end up with spyware installed on their computers. In addition to collecting information about a computer user's browsing habits, malicious spyware can install additional, unwanted software, redirect Web browser activities and change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and a loss of Internet functioning.

The Federal Trade Commission's Web site has information about what to do if consumers are victimized by spyware.