New Year celebrations have already been marred by cyber-criminals trying to take advantage of the holiday season.

Mutant versions of W32/Dorf-AE, also known as Storm, have stopped using the lure of Santa Claus's wife doing a striptease and are now posing as Happy New Year e-cards.

Sophos warned today that the latest malicious email campaigns offer links to websites containing malware using a wide variety of seasonal subject lines, including:

• A brand New Year 2008
• Blasting New Year 2008
• Dance to the New 2008 Year tune
• Happy New Year 2008 to the one I love
• New Year 2008 Wishes
• The New Year has arrived

"Many people will be returning to their desks this morning after a lengthy break for Christmas and New Year to a brimming bundle of unread emails," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"The danger is that the holiday hangover will make them less careful about which messages they click on."