Ever received an e-mail from a legitimate-looking company, asking for personal information?

If so, you may have been the target of a "phishing" scam — in which con artists use the name, logo or Web site of a reputable business to commit fraud.

The Federal Trade Commission and other organizations are grouping together to fight what they call one of the fastest-growing types of Internet fraud.

The FTC, Better Business Bureaus, Visa and others are asking consumers to report suspicious-looking emails and not reply without checking their validity.

A Treasury Department official says such scams strike at the heart of the nation's financial system, which he says is built on confidence. He says consumers need to feel secure in using the Internet — without feeling like their identity will be stolen.

Some con artists tell consumers the federal insurance on their savings accounts will be canceled unless they update their personal data. Others claim to be from Internet service providers redoing their billing lists. Still others say something has gone wrong with a credit card transaction and that additional information is needed or the card will be canceled.

There are even links from the e-mails to Web sites that look just like legitimate bank or credit card or online merchant sites.

But they're not.

"It's the perfect crime from the fraudster's perspective, " said Naftali Bennett, chief executive of Cyota Inc., a New York-based anti-fraud firm. "It's easy to do, you get thousands of records and the risk of getting caught is very low."

A study released earlier this year by the research firm Gartner Inc. found that an estimated 57 million consumers believe they may have received a fraudulent e-mail in recent years.

It estimated that the losses that banks and credit card companies incurred from fraud against consumers who took the phishers' bait totaled $1.2 billion last year.

There are ways for Internet users to protect themselves, and experts say it starts with consumers being just as wary about giving out personal information online as they would be on the phone or in person.

"The red flag should be any request for personal information, especially from someone who says they need it right now or there will be dire consequences, " said Patricia Poss, an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission's bureau of consumer protection.