I had notification of this from Wayne, GW1UDK, this week.
Online identity thieves are trying to profit from the problems that UK citizens are facing because of the global economic turmoil and the accompanying recession. Their new phishing campaign tries to trick users into giving up their personal information in order to benefit from an alleged recession-relief programme fund, often quoting "Recession Relief Programme Fund".
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued a fraud alert on its website about this new scheme. Some of the fake e-mails claim to have been sent by Foreign Secretary David Miliband and the subject is "Global economic crisis relief aid".
The email asks recipients for their personal details so that they can receive funds from a fictitious recession relief programme fund. This email is a scam, do not reply to it.
Further information is available on:
The Register.
As with all unsolicited contact offering you the promise of lots of money, the originator is after your money, or enough details so that you will receive the bill for their "borrowing"!
I will re-iterate my views on any email asking for personal details: Don't give out any information in reply to an email requesting it, even if it seems genuine, unless you are absolutely sure (check with a phone call if you need to, but NEVER use the contact details from the email!).