A new wave of bank phishing emails is hitting recipients, this time from attackers impersonating National Australia Bank. The scam uses the 'your account has been disabled' trick, and lures users into clicking a link.

Users who do click the link are taken to a fake but convincing NAB internet banking website, which then asks for usernames and passwords to reactivate their accounts, MailGuard reports. The email appears to be from discharge.authority@nab.com.au, and features a subject line 'Notification'.

The website is a duplication of the real one. The NAB is aware of the scam and others like it, including others appearing to be from Support centre - NAB and a phishing SMS trying to do the same thing. The bank advises recipients to forward the email to spoof@nab.com.au and then delete the email.

"If you've received an email of this type and have clicked on the link and entered information, please contact your local branch or call 13 22 65 immediately," the bank's website says.

MailGuard says that phishing scams are designed to steal information, including banking details. The fake website looks genuine and is able to capture details without arousing suspicion. Those details are then used to make more fraudulent transactions.

MailGuard has provided a list of tips for spotting phishing emails

• Generic greetings, such as ‘Dear customer'
• A sense of urgency
• Bad grammar or misuse of punctuation and poor-quality or distorted graphics
• An instruction to click a link to perform an action (hover over them to see where you're really being directed)
• Obscure sending addresses (for example, Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo addresses should set alarms bells ringing)