Anti-virus and spam experts at Sophos are warning computer users not to click on links claiming that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s email account has been hacked. The virus-infected email was sent out during elections night to British email addresses.

Sophos warns that users who click on the link contained in the email can be infected by a series of Trojan horses that aim to steal confidential information from infected PCs, for instance, server passwords, and sensitive online banking account details. The email arrives with the subject line: “BBC: Tony Blair email account hacked!”

Hackers have attempted to spam government’s email accounts and websites in several occasions in search of confidential information or as part of anti-war protest. In 2003 UK government website 10 Downing Street was briefly rendered inaccessible after a co-ordinated protest against the Prime Minster’s role in the conflict.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos said: “Clicking on the link takes users to a web site which invisibly installs a Trojan horse on the victim’s computer. This Trojan horse then attempts to install other malicious code onto the infected computer and install password stealers which can be used by hackers for grabbing information.

Curiously it appears that the people behind this election night hack attack may have made a small error. It appears that the email messages were supposed to display a photograph of Tony Blair from the BBC web site to lend it credence, but an elementary mistake in their HTML coding has meant only the text of the message is displayed rather than a picture of the Prime Minister.”