Police are urging people to ignore an e-mail which wrongly looks like it was officially sent out by Bermuda Police Service.

The message, titled 'E-mail Alert — pass it on' warns of a computer hacker and states: "Urgent — if a person called Simon Ashton contacts you through e-mail don't accept him. Delete him because he is a hacker."

It goes on to encourage people to send the e-mail to everyone they know.

However, a Police statement said yesterday: "This e-mail has the details of a Police officer from the Bermuda Police Service inadvertently attached to it; however, the e-mail did not originate from the Bermuda Police Service and is not an official Police message or warning.

"We are encouraging members of the public who may receive this e-mail to disregard it and delete it, without passing it on to anyone else."