Contractors should refrain from handing out financial information over emails, according to a national security awareness campaign.

Tony Neate, managing director of GetSafeOnline.org, warned web users that financial institutions would never ask for a username and password in an email and that anyone who receives this spam should just delete it.

"[It] is a big issue that people think a phishing email is a genuine email. Spam emails are selling you something, but some of these [phishing] emails can have trojons attached and get you to go to malicious sites," he explained.

In related news, a study by MyVoucherCodes.co.uk revealed that eleven per cent of people in the UK have been fooled by spam emails dealing with financial matters and 13 per cent have replied to one.

However, a third of internet savvy Brits claim to have a spam filter on their emails.