Within the past week, customers of Britain's Barclays Bank and two Canadian banks have been the victims of cybercriminals who tricked them into revealing their personal account information.

In the U.K., Barclays Bank PLC warned customers on Saturday of an e-mail scam designed to get them to reveal confidential financial information. And in Canada, customers of BMO Bank of Montreal and Toronto-based Mouvement des Caisse Desjardins were hit with a variation of the same e-mail scam.

According to Barclays, fraudsters sent an e-mail message purporting to be from the bank with a link to what appeared to be the bank's Web site. It was, in fact, a spoof site.

Customers were then prompted to enter personal information such as passwords and personal identification numbers, which could be used to withdraw cash or transfer funds to other accounts.

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