Users of the internet payment service PayPal were today warned about a new virus that tries to trick them into revealing their bank details and other personal information.

The virus takes the form of an email appearing to be from PayPal, warning customers that their account is about to expire. The message asks for a series of details, including the user's credit card number, pin and expiry date, full name, date of birth and social security number.

MessageLabs, which provides email security systems, said it had intercepted more than 53,000 copies of the virus since it first became aware of it on Monday afternoon.

It said the virus, which has been dubbed the Mimail email worm, originated in France, but has been detected in 77 countries. Around three-quarters of the emails were sent from the United States and 8% from the UK.

It is the 10th variation of the virus, all of which have pretended to be from PayPal, eBay's online payments system, which allows shoppers to make payments or receive money securely over the internet.

The worm arrives as an attachment to an email called either InfoUpdate.exe or www.paypal.com.pif. It spreads by emailing copies of itself to email addresses from the infected computer.

The sender of the email appears as Do-Not-Replypaypal.com and the subject is either "important" followed by blank spaces and random characters or "problems with your PayPal account".

MessageLabs warned consumers not to open the email if they received it and always to be suspicious of emails asking for personal details.

It said it was part of a new and sinister trend emerging among virus writers to create viruses as a means of committing fraud.

Mark Sunner, of MessageLabs, said: "In the case of Mimail.J, the virus is nothing more than a vehicle for the delivery of an email designed to defraud unsuspecting users.

"This suggests that the mindset of the virus author is changing, whereas once disruption was motivation enough, we are now seeing a new breed of cybercriminal intent on using viruses as a means of lining their own pockets."

He said these viruses adopted a "hit and run"-style approach, duping a crop of unsuspecting users before a new variant was released.