Phishers have been unusually slow to capitalise on the lost HM Revenue & Customs data disks.

Security firm McAfee said that the first phishing attack based on the loss has only just occurred, despite the disks going missing nearly three months ago.

Toralv Dirro, a security strategist at McAfee Avert Labs, believes that this is down to greater security awareness on the part of UK consumers.

"It is first time that we have seen this kind of phishing attack," he told vnunet.com. "The IRS gets hit by this kind of attack all the time, but it is much less common in the UK."

The phishing attack uses a spoofed email header claiming that the message comes from HMRC. It informs the recipient that they have a tax rebate of £215 waiting, and asks for bank account details.