Apacs, the UK’s payment association, has issued a warning to British consumers about fraudsters that are aiming to scam people into divulging their banking details.

The association says that the scale of losses resulting from these so-called phishing attacks are falling but there are still a significant number of people using bogus emails to gain personal information.

In the first quarter of this year there were more than 10,000 instances of phishing in the UK and for people who did not protect their data effectively these attacks could have led to debt management and money problems.

Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs, said: "Phishing scams are continuing to rise and they are becoming ever more sophisticated, which is why we want to remind people to remain wise to them."

Figures released in February by Apacs showed that UK consumers spent close to £11.3 billion via their credit cards over the course of December 2007.