An opportunist scam is seeing phishers use recession fears as bait, warns the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

An account of the fictitious ‘Recession Relief Programme Fund’ is offered in emails, which ostensibly come from Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Subject titles such as ‘Global economic crisis relief aid’ are intended to entice unsuspecting users. The emails then aim to dupe the users into providing personal data, such as their login details for online banking.

The emails take advantage of the stimulus package announced at the recent G20 conference, and are reminiscent of a similar scam that took place in January, when British citizens were allegedly offered a tax rebate.

The FCO advise that any users receiving the email report it to their local fraud office or the Metropolitan Police website

Trend Micro has published advice on protecting your computer from such phishing attacks.