​The scam sees criminals use the identities of chief executives to try and extract funds out other organisations

Charities have been warned to be aware of fraudsters posing as chief executives.

Action Fraud UK has reported an increase in so-called chief executive fraud, where a company or organisation receives an email from a criminal who claims to be the boss of another firm and asks for funds to be transferred.

This has prompted the Charity Commission to warn trustees, employees and volunteers that they could be targeted by the scam.

The scam has seen criminals use the names of charity chief executives, utilise well-known logos and send emails which appear to be from legitimate addresses.

A Charity Commission spokesman said: “With a strong social engineering element, the fraudster often requests that they, as the chief executive, are not contacted further by the financial officer as they are busy.

“Alternatively the fraudster may pick occasions when the real chief executive is on holiday, preventing the financial officer from checking the validity of the request.”

Charities have been advised to review their internal processes around transactions, to question details and warn staff and volunteers not to click on any links or open attachments in unusual emails.