POLICE are investigating after the Guardian reported last week on an email scam originating in Nigeria.

This paper was among the contacts of former Epping Petanque Club secretary Arthur Tallon, all of whom received an email purportedly from him telling them he was stranded in Nigeria and needed $800 dollars to get home.

In fact, the 79-year-old was safely at home but his Yahoo email account had been hacked into, the password changed and the email sent by fraudsters claiming to be Mr Tallon.

Epping Forest District Commander Chief Inspector Alan Ray said there is little legislation for internet crime.

He added: "It's very difficult to do anything because internet crime is quite a new thing. If the person suffers a loss then it does become a crime and we have to look at each individual case, but certainly if someone is out of pocket we do investigate it."

Mr Tallon, who recently moved to Brighton from Epping, said he was worried that someone was still sending emails in his name.

He added: "This is identity theft. It worries me because it's got my name on the emails and it's my email address.

"People might fall for it, especially as I haven't been in touch with many of the Petanque club members after I moved away from Epping.

"I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder what's going to happen next, if they can hack into my bank account."

A similar message was sent from UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw's account when hackers sent an email to his contacts saying he was in Nigeria and needed $3,500 to get home.

Chief Inspector Ray said: "It's quite a popular scam and we do get quite a few reports of African emails coming in and often people do fall for it. My advice is don't send any money on the base of an email."

A spokeswoman from Yahoo said that Mr Tallon must have given his password to the fraudsters for them to access his account, and they probably sent him an email asking for the information - a practise known as Phishing.

She added: "The fraudulent email usually contains an urgent message that tries to lure the recipient into providing sensitive information.

"Phishing is an industry-wide issue and one that Yahoo! treats very seriously."