Carly Warburton has had money syphoned out of her bank account in an online scam

A YORK couple targeted by internet fraudsters who tried to clean out their bank account have sent out a warning to others not to fall for the cunning email scam.

Mother-of-two Carly Warburton did not suspect a threatening electronic message, supposedly from her building society and complete with its logo and website link, asking her to send them her personal details to avoid her account being shut down would be a gateway to raiding her savings.

But days later she discovered her response had allowed £130 of her money to be transferred to an unnamed account - and then discovered through Nationwide, who she banks with, that the thieves had arranged to take another £150 the following week.

The "phishing" technique also saw Carly receive emails from two other banks which she does not have any dealings with asking for similar crucial information.

Police are investigating the scam and Nationwide has agreed to reimburse the 32-year-old and her partner, Richard Gant, for the money they lost. Now the couple hope their experience will make people more wary of the hoaxers.

"We're absolutely disgusted. We have two children and we need the money which was stolen to buy things for them and pay bills," said Richard, 42, of Acomb, York.

"The people behind this just seem to be sending out emails constantly hoping for some response. If we hadn't checked the account quickly, we'd never have known this had happened and it makes you uneasy about how safe your money is.

"Many people might take these emails at face value, because they genuinely look as if they're from a bank and threaten to close your account if you don't reply, so we want to warn them to ignore it. We're so angry because whoever's doing this doesn't care about who they target and whether they can afford to lose the money they take from them."

The first email Carly received, vaguely addressed to "Dear Customer", claimed to be from Nationwide's accounting desk and said: "It has come to our attention that your account billing updates are out of order.

"If you could please take 5-10 minutesand update your billing records, you will not run into any further problems with the online service. However, failure to update your records will result in account termination."

She later received similar messages claiming to be from Halifax and Abbey National.

A Nationwide spokesman said: "We are aware phishing' is sadly very prevalent - we take it very seriously and offer advice to customers.

"When reported to us, we make every attempt to close down fraudulent sites as soon as possible."

He said the company will never ask for personal details via email, and any customers who receive one should forward it to phishing@nationwide.co.uk

9:34am Thursday 27th March 2008

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