Jade Saunders, who was crowned the winner of the contest in April, became a victim of the internet con after answering an official looking email, claiming to be from her bank.

The 20-year-old student is now warning others not to fall into the same trap.

She said: "I'm not naive and I wouldn't just reply to something because it looks so authentic. If you get one of these emails just delete it straight away."

The email purporting to be from her bank, claimed Halifax needed to update its records.

When Jade clicked on the link, she was taken to a convincing looking website, where she then entered her account details.
However, when she visited her branch last Wednesday she was told that one of her accounts was £3,000 overdrawn.

Initially she assumed she had transferred some money by mistake.
But when staff at the bank asked her if she banked online and told her a standing order for £10,000 had been set up, Jade realised she had fallen victim to internet fraudsters.

She said: "I didn't start crying because I was in shock. I was thinking 'what if I don't get this money back?'."

Miss Saunders said the bank told her they were optimistic about recovering the money because the fraud was spotted so soon.

She added: "Hopefully they'll stop it before it gets to someone. I am really cautious about things like this and shred my bills. I got another email from Nat West and I'm not with them. I've told my mum about it and she's getting the same emails. It was all set out like the official site and said they needed to update their accounts."

Jade said she was well aware of the dangers of identity theft and wanted to publicise the issue so people would not give out sensitive information.

Most of the high street banks carry advice about online fraud on their websites. A Halifax spokesman said: "No bank at all would email you and ask you to disclose confidential information. This is a common fraud and we operate an online fraud guarantee. In all instances when people receive this type of email they should delete it straight away."