TRADING Standards officers at Worcestershire County Council are warning people to be on their guard against fraudulent e-mails claiming to be from internet banks.

A number of people in the Worcester area have reported receiving the e-mails, which encourage recipients to click on a link to enter their password.

Lorraine Boulton, of Worcester Trading Standards, said people should never respond to these e-mails and should always report them.

"They have been circulating for a while now and they do tend to come and go in phases," she said.

"We have been contacted by people who have received these e-mails and as well as us, a number of banks have been looking into it.

"Our advice is for people to be on their guard against them and contact their individual banks."

Block

Mrs Boulton said the fake e-mails should be forwarded to internet service providers who were working hard to block them.

The latest batch of the fraudulent e-mails purport to be from LloydsTSB and Barclays and provide a link to a new screen asking customers to access a password, user ID and other personal information.

They say: "Due to a technical update, we recommend you to reactivate your account."

Both banks say they would never ask for customers' information to be recorded in this way and the links to other web pages are not official, even though they appear to go to the banks' own homepages.

Spoof e-mails can often be recognised because of spelling mistakes and contact telephone numbers which are based in the US.

Mrs Boulton said: "These scams seemed to have died a death for a while, although we have tried to highlight the issue in the Press, so people are still aware that they are circulating.

"There are a number of things that can be done, but it's almost impossible to find out where these e-mails come from.

"As well as contacting us, their bank and their internet service provider, customers should also call the police."

Mrs Boulton said anybody who had been targeted should call the Worcester Trading Standards hotline on 01905 765373.