Despite an elaborate ruse by Internet cons yesterday to steal bank account numbers of Citibank's 200 million customers, the dopes failed to check their spelling and syntax.

"They're getting more sophisticated but they still have problems with grammar," said Citigroup spokesman Mark Rodgers.

The latest e-mail "fishing" attempt to steal account data came in a purported warning from Citibank - complete with logos, but sent from a blind account at Excite.com - that terrorists and money laundering had caused the bank "to block some of its accounts."

The e-mail asked customers to log in to a special site and give numbers of savings and checking accounts to make sure they're safe.

It got really fishy at the end of the pitch, with a couple of bad possessives: "Citibank notifies all it's [sic] customers in cases of high fraud or criminal activity and asks you to check your account's [sic] balances."

Citibank handles thousands of fraud complaints, and has set up a fraud hotline on www.citibank.com.