The arrest was made following a raid on a house in Lytham St Anne's by Lancashire police and officers from the UK's National Hi Tech Crime Unit. They were following up reports from Smile's parent bank The Co-Operative, of a wave of scam e-mails sent to customers last month.

In a statement, the NHTCU says: "It is believed this man was a copy-cat phisher, and is not connected to the organised crime group that is behind the global swathe of phishing scams targeting bank users in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA."

In New Zealand, police have met with banks to discuss the introduction of new banking security measures after criminals operating from Estonia and Latvia successfully stole $100,000 from customers through a recent e-mail phishing expedition. The review is contemplating the introduction of smart authentication cards, SMS messaging or withdrawal restrictions for online bank customers.

NZ police earlier this month warned citizens to be wary of apparently legitimate job ads for local money transfer agents. Police e-crime Manager Maarten Kleintjes says successful applicants are being used to transfer money stolen from NZ bank accounts into overseas accounts.