Con men clone UK bank website

West African cyber squatters used a fake version of a British bank's online service to give their fraud scheme credibility.

The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) said that at least two Canadians had lost more than $100,000 after being taken in by the fake website.

The scheme is a British twist on the 'Nigerian' scam, which offers people a share of the huge sums of money the scammers claim they need moved out of various African nations.

It follows a similar con where a cloned version of a South African bank's website was used to add credibility to the scam.

BBC Radio5Live found that an unclaimed web domain of the UK bank had been used by con men to get more cash out their victims.

An NCIS spokesman said the domain looked legitimate and was very convincing, especially to people not very experienced online.

The bank has not been named and the people behind the scam are still at large.