The New Zealand Bankers’ Association is urging the public to be on guard against an email scam. Scammers are sending emails out which appear to come from a New Zealand Bankers’ Association email address: nzba@nzba.org.nz.

The scam emails include a subject line of "We are necessitating a verification process on all account(s)".

Anyone receiving this email, or anything similar, should delete it immediately. Do not click on any links within the email, and do not disclose any personal information.

"This scam was relatively easy to spot because the Bankers’ Association is not a bank, and would never ask people about their bank accounts.

"People are reminded to safeguard information relating to their bank accounts, and never to disclose their PIN numbers or account passwords to anyone. I would like to emphasise that the New Zealand Bankers’ Association, and its member banks, will never ask a customer to disclose their PIN number or account password," said New Zealand Bankers’ chief executive Kirk Hope.

This kind of scam is known as "phishing". Phishing scams try to get your bank account numbers, passwords and credit card numbers.