Latest southern Colorado news, weather and sports from FOX21 News

COLORADO SPRINGS -- The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning people about a new phishing scam that appears to be an email from them.

The BBB said the email contains links that, when clicked, download viruses.

They said this is the third time this has happened in the past three months, and they are now working with the FBI to resolve the issue.

"Our national organization in Arlington, Va. has been working for three months with the FBI, and I can tell you that they've closed down over 50 sites," Katie Carrol, Director of Media Relations and Communications with the BBB, said.

The local BBB said they have already received dozens of calls.

"It looks very legitimate, and they're saying that there is a complaint that was filed against the company, please click on the link to resolve the issue," Carrol said.

Carrol said the problem is the email is branded with BBB's logo, which people trust.

"The email is branded. It's got our logo. It looks very official, and if you do click on it, it will install malware and infect your computer," Carrol said.

Carrol said they are unsure what the cons behind the scam are trying to achieve, but she said they are most likely trying to get personal information.

"You know once you have access into somebody's computer, the sky's the limit of what you could do," Carrol said.

The BBB said they do contact businesses if there has been a complaint filed against them, which makes this scam seem even more legitimate.

"One of the things we do to resolve the dispute is we send the company the complaint and say this person complained about you, here is an opportunity to make it right, that's something we do. Now we don't do it this way, and I'm not gonna say how we do it because I don't want the scammers to copy that, but it's making people alarmed," Carrol said.

Carrol said any businesses who aren't sure if an email is legitimate or a scam can call the BBB to find out.

"We encourage everybody if it's suspicious, don't open it, just delete it. If you are a business and you're worried that you may have a complaint and this is legitimate, you can call us anytime, and we'll look it up for you," she said.

She also added that everyone should be careful when surfing the web.

"In general just don't click so much, don't click so much. Don't be so quick to click!"

If you think you received the scam email, forward it to the BBB at phishing@council.bbb.org, and then delete the message.

"You don't want to play games with it because you don't want that virus going into your computer," Carrol said.