Online fraudsters are increasingly targeting internet users with search engine optimisation attacks, it has been suggested.

Luis Corrons, technical director at Panda Security, said there has been a rise in this type of crime over the last year, with hackers positioning web pages to appear in the first results returned by popular search engines.

He explained that some of the search terms which have been hijacked this year include "swine flu" and "Michael Jackson's death".

Mr Corrons said it can be difficult for internet users to protect themselves from this type of fraud as it can be hard to distinguish the malicious links from harmless ones.

"Unlike other attacks, such as scams sent via email, the user won't be able to recognise that the link is malicious, that's why the cybercriminals are launching these kinds of attacks," he added.

In related news, figures published last week by Cifas show there was an 11% rise in fraudulent activity during the third quarter of the year.