By Tom McTague 12/08/2010
The scammers have stolen about £675,000 from customers at a top high street bank, which remained unnamed last night. About 3,000 people are thought to have been hit between July 5 and August 4 - and the theft is said to be still going on.
Accounts have been raided after people had their computers infected by a new Trojan virus - known as Zeus v3 - as they surfed the net.
The software steals a customer's online banking ID and, if there is more than £800 in the account, money is transferred to a different account. Internet protection firm M86 Security discovered the scam which is believed to have been carried out from Eastern Europe.
The company said: "Criminals continuously seek new, sophisticated ways to steal information and money without detection."
Victims of online banking fraud usually have the money refunded.