The Malta Bankers’ Association yesterday cautioned bank customers, and in particular internet banking users, never to give out personal internet or telephone banking user identification details or passwords.

“It is never any bank’s policy or practice to contact customers and to ask them for such information,” it said on behalf of its member banks.

Fraudsters often send forged emails, purporting to be from banks, designed to fool recipients into divulging such personal financial data. Under no circumstances should customers respond to such requests, which could lead to financial loss.

Suspicious emails should be forwarded by customers to their bank for further investigation. It is also recommended that customers make active use of email-filtering software which helps to identify fraudulent, malicious or hoax emails.