According to The Guardian newspaper (24.07.08) figures from the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) report that there has been a five-fold growth in internet banking during the past seven years, with 21 million people – or half of all internet users – now using online bank accounts. At the same time, more people are accessing their accounts online with greater frequency – a fifth of customers now gaining online access daily, compared to just one in 13 some four or five years ago.

Given such an explosion in usage and in light of customers' initial fears about the security of online banking, the industry has nevertheless maintained a technological edge over potential fraudsters and other criminals to such a degree that the risk of becoming victim of an online banking scam remains very low. Indeed, there was a reduction of the sums lost by banks because of online fraud by one-third in 2007.

The defence of online bank accounts against persistent attack from committed fraudsters or even unauthorised access by opportunists is of course a two-way effort maintained not just by the security systems put in place by the banks themselves, but also by the customers.

APACS has produced a useful guide, therefore, to help online banking customers recognise some of the tricks used by the criminals and what they can do to help protect their accounts from unauthorised access.

Some of the most common tactics used by criminals, for example, go by exotic sounding names, such as:

- "Phishing" – where emails are sent from what appears to be the customers own bank, but are in fact from a completely bogus company, with the intention of eliciting a reply that divulges the customers details;

- Trojans – adopting the tactics of the Trojan Horse, this is software intended to embed itself in the victim's computer, without detection, where it can read, monitor and report back personal details;

- Mules – so-called "money mules" are used online to launder money criminally obtained through phishing or by Trojans.

Some scams will be quite easy to detect, others less so. To help in the fight against such crimes, therefore, always be suspicious of any emails asking for any personal information, especially where this relates to online bank accounts. Certainly no legitimate source – including the police, a building society or your bank – would ask for your PIN number or passwords via email.

Never go to what you think is the site of your own online banking account from another webpage or hyperlink in an email, always type in bank's correct website address into your internet browser. The options which can be accessed through the browser itself should be set to give the highest security and privacy level – and remember that these are not always the settings installed by the program's default installation.

If you use online banking accounts, it is worth considering installing the latest antivirus software and connect to the internet through a reliable firewall. Both your internet browser and the computer's operating system will be able to supply downloadable security updates and fixes on a regular basis.