The days running up to Feb. 14th are when employees are at the greatest risk of running afoul of company e-mail policies, many messaging firms are reporting.

This week, many corporations are warning their workers not to fall for the e-mail and Web security pitfalls that are prevalent around Valentine's Day.

According to TechWeb, not only is Valentine's Day-oriented spam surging - hyping flowers and chocolate -- but "phishers" (reprobates who use spam to trick you into volunteering personal information, then use it to buy goods or swipe your identity) are active, too, enticing consumers to spoofed Web sites.

According to Pete Simpson of California-based Clearswift (an email security firm), hackers also use the holiday to get recipients to open attachments or click on links to purported e-greeting cards.

"Affectionate e-mails, purporting to be from a potential lover, have proven to be effective in tricking people to break security procedures - taking advantage of [people's] weaknesses," said Simpson in a statement.

Moreover, said Simpson, Valentine's Day is marked - and marred - by more X-rated e-mails than at any time of the year. Just one pornographic message can bring litigation settlements in the six- or seven-figure range, he added.

Clearswift recommended that companies remind their workers of such threats, and implement and enforce e-mail- and Web-acceptable policies.