HBOS customers in email avalanche

HUNDREDS of HBOS customers have been deluged with e-mails after a computer glitch. The incident, which affected Bank of Scotland 'Isave' accounts, happened only hours before a shareholder vote on lavish pay packages for executives at BoS and its parent, Halifax.

The unwanted online avalanche was triggered when a customer tried to change her account into joint names. She sent her request to a cyber address previously used by BoS for e-mail marketing to all Isave customers. Her action unwittingly sparked a round of e-mails to hundreds of fellow savers, swamping their computer screens.

BoS claimed no confidential information had been divulged. 'It was not hacking, but an online clerical error,' it said.

HBOS faces a storm of protest at its annual meeting today over a new incentive scheme that could see chief executive James Crosby and deputy chairman Peter Burt collect £10m each over three years.