Why does /var/log/messages fill up with nmbd 'name_to_nstring workgroup name is too long' error?

Issue

• Why does /var/log/messages fill up with the following error ?

  Feb 13 04:03:12 example.com nmbd[3753]: [2011/02/13 04:03:12, 0] nmbd/nmbd_workgroupdb.c:name_to_unstring(56)
  Feb 13 04:03:12 example.com nmbd[3753]: name_to_nstring: workgroup name <work-group-name> is too long. Truncating to <work-group- >