ONE of Ireland's largest law firms has contacted gardaí and UK police over a sophisticated email hoax using its name to target people in an inheritance scam.

Arthur Cox Solicitors, which has offices in Dublin, London and New York, has issued a warning about emails from someone claiming to be a solicitor from the firm and distributing the contents of a will.

UK police believe the fraud may be operated from a country outside the EU and continues to run despite its source email address being shut down on a number of occasions.

The fraud involves people being contacted via email, told they have inherited money and seeking bank details.

While only a "handful" of targets have contacted Arthur Cox in relation to the emails, it is unknown how many have been circulated since they began to appear last summer.

A spokesman for the company told the Sunday Tribune: "The firm has done everything to ensure the issue was dealt with and it was reported to both the UK police and An Garda Síochána. We have put a notice about it on our website and have responded to each individual who has contacted us in relation to this."

A phone number attached to the email has been rung by police; once they made their identity known the person on the receiving end hung up.

The hoax is just one of dozens of similar email-based scams – many using the names of major banks – designed to trick recipients into divulging their bank-account details.