Scammers posing as the court service are targeting Kent residents.

Members of the public have received an email message telling them to attend a district court - even though there is no such thing in England.

An attachment to the email is believed to contain malware.

A parish council in the county has already fallen victim to it and Kent County Council's Trading Standards has issued a public warning.

A spokesman said: “We believe the attachment is a malware. If people download malware it will infect their computer with a virus.

“This is a scam. Apart from the suspicious-looking email address, there is no such thing as a district court in England.

"Anyone receiving this kind of email in their inbox should delete it immediately without opening the attachments and they could also warn their friends and relatives about it.

“Unfortunately, there are a number of Kent residents who are susceptible to this kind of scam.

“So far we have had only one instance reported to us – by a Kent parish council – but we want to get this warning across before the scam achieves widespread success by taking in too many victims.”