Author J.K. Rowling is warning Harry Potter fans to watch out for Internet fraudsters claiming to sell electronic copies of her latest wizard saga--they are trying to steal bank and credit card details.
In the latest phishing scam, fans were asked to hand over their bank details to pay for a supposed copy of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" which is to be published on July 16.
author, "Harry Potter
and the Half-Blood Prince"
"Please, please protect yourselves, your computers and your credit cards, and do not fall for these scams," the writer said after her lawyers succeeded in closing down a fraudulent Web site that purported to sell the latest Potter book in electronic form.
Rowling, whose tales of a teenage wizard have turned her into a multimillionaire and revived children's passion for reading, warned that the con artists could reappear.
"I would bet the original manuscript of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' itself that this will not be the last attempt to con HP fans before publication of the book," she said on her official site.
Telling fans never to trust anyone who offers downloads of Potter books, she said they could be laid open to computer viruses and hackers.
"The only genuine copies of Harry Potter remain the authorized traditional book or audio tapes/cassettes/CDs distributed through my publishers," she added.
Phishing frauds have become common over the last two years, as more consumers do their personal banking on the Internet. Banks advise their customers to be wary of any e-mail asking for personal details.
Police suspect organized crime gangs from Eastern Europe are the main culprits.
Rowling's copyright lawyer, Neil Blair, told Reuters: "They were asking for money and people's credit cards. This was a phishing scam."
Blair, who monitors the Internet for copyright infringements for Rowling, said: "We spotted it and also heard from a fan site called The Leaky Cauldron, which had alerted us. We got it shut down very quickly."
Blair said Rowling has never granted licenses for electronic versions of any of her books.
Story Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
