The days running up to Feb. 14 are when employees are at the greatest risk of running afoul of company e-mail policies, a message firm said Tuesday.

Clearswift warned workers not to fall for the e-mail and Web security pitfalls that are prevalent around Valentine's Day.

Not only is Valentine's Day-oriented spam surging -- hyping flowers and chocolate -- but phishers are active, too, enticing consumers to spoofed Web sites. Hackers also use the holiday, said Clearswift's Pete Simpson, the manager of the company's ThreatLab, 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.