Bank of Ireland has again found itself at the centre of an e-mail scam, which offers the victim the chance to receive $3 million (€2.5 million) in return for handing over their bank details.

While this isn't the first e-mail to request such information in exchange for significant amounts of money, it is the first to use the Bank of Ireland name within it.

The latest e-mail claims to come from a female staff member who works with Bank of Ireland. The bank has been targeted by hackers in the past and last month had to close a fraudulent replica of its website following an attempt to con €85,000 from a consumer.

Mary Brennan, a spokeswoman for Bank of Ireland, said the bank had "absolutely nothing" to do with the e-mail and urged customers never to divulge any details about their bank account under any circumstances.

"The bank would never ask for such details," she said, adding that anyone who has received such an e-mail should ignore it and anyone who has been tempted into divulging information should contact their bank immediately.

In this case, the sender claims to be the accounting officer for a man who died in the London bombings in July last year, leaving the sum of $7.5 million in his private account.

The e-mail asks those who have received it to act as next of kin to in return for receiving 40 per cent of his inheritance. His name is nowhere to be found on the list of the bombing victims, and the Irish telephone number on the e-mail does not work.

"This is another in a long line of phishing scams aimed purely at enticing money out of innocent people," said Ms Brennan. She said the bank would be looking into the incident with the help of the Garda.

Phishing, a type of fraud where e-mails purporting to be from banks and credit-card companies are used to glean unauthorised access to consumers' accounts, is becoming increasingly frequent. This particular type of incident is also common and has become known as the Nigerian Scam, or 419 advance fee fraud.