Thursday February 20 10:05 AM EST

LONDON - German hackers have found a way to trick people into transferring money into the computer robbers' bank accounts, New Scientist magazine reported on today.

Anyone using Intuit's popular Quicken program to do their banking, and then surfing the World Wide Web, could be at risk, it added.

It quoted the Chaos Computer Club as saying it could hide a malicious computer program known as an "applet" in a web site. The applet would surreptitiously transfer itself into a person's computer when they dialed up that site.

Once inside, it would search for Quicken, a financial management program that can be used to manage bank accounts via a modem.

The next time the unwitting victim dials up the bank to pay a bill or even check his or her balance, the applet slips in an order telling the bank to transfer money to the hacker's account.

The first thing the victim will know is when a surprising bank statement arrives. "It certainly is something that is a valid concern," said Tony Macmillan of Intuit's London office. He said Intuit was looking for ways to close the loophole.

New Scientist said the Computer Emergency Response Team at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University had issued a warning about ActiveX -- the computer language the applets are written in -- and a similar language Java. But they said they had not received any reports yet of someone falling victim to an applet.

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