A five-word text message is sweeping across the UK, according to a major bank. A text offering a "Free hamper - just pay P&P" is being widely shared, putting individuals at risk. Bank has revealed that between January 1 and April 24 this year, 1,400 of its UK banking customers lodged credit card chargeback requests seemingly connected to fraudulent subscriptions set up through these scams.

One recent victim, sharing their experience on the MoneySavingExpert website, admitted they provided their details but received no hamper. They said: "I recently (foolishly) responded to an email purporting to be a survey with an M&S Afternoon Tea Hamper as a free reward. On completion of the survey, I was asked to pay £1.00 for postage. My debit card was charged £1.00. No hamper arrived. Then, a few days later, they charged £53 to my card. Fortunately, this payment was declined due to insufficient funds in my account.

"I contacted my Bank and they told me that they had blocked this 'merchant' from making further charges to my account. However, they continued to attempt to take 4 further payments, each a few days apart. Eventually, I changed my card number, but this has not stopped the fraudster from trying to take money from my account.

"My bank tells me that I need to contact the merchant to cancel this 'subscription', but I have no contact details. and the only option available to stop these actions seems to be to close my account. I have now received the same email several more times and have blocked the sender on each occasion. It seems strange to me that my bank (Chase) appears to be unable to stop these attempted frauds."

An MSE reader weighed in with a sceptical response: "Your post seems to be contradicting itself. You say that Chase has blocked the merchant, but also that Chase is unable to stop the fraud."

"Provided that Chase are blocking every attempt to take money, there's nothing more to do. They will eventually give up."

Another victim of suspicious online activity added: "Just received one of these Tea Hamper phishing messages myself. Looked like a scam, and I'm expecting further phishing attempts following the recent cyber problems MandS have had."

They added a note of appreciation: "Good that Chase stopped any further attempts to take money but I can understand that they can't stop attempted frauds. Thanks for the warning."

Another person : "Next time check the email address it came from. Clearly was not a proper MandS one, on the one I got."