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More than one million people can count themselves lucky following an eBay customer's revelation that he bought a computer on the online auction site, which happened to have personal bank details.

Following the purchase, shopper Andrew Chapman, an IT manager from Oxford, discovered the computer's hard drive was loaded with information on American Express, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland customers.

Among the details was data on names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, bank account numbers, sort codes, credit card numbers, mothers' maiden names as well as signatures.

"I couldn't believe it. In front of me were reams of extremely confidential information about thousands and thousands of people," said Chapman.

Online security expert Adam Laurie said: "This is appalling. This information is worth millions, a thief could easily use it to go on an enormous shopping spree."

The computer was sold for just £35 by a former employee of archiving firm Graphic Data, who did not erase the sensitive data before the sale.

Internet security experts recommend erasing all information from appliances such as computers before disposing of them to avoid the risk if ID Theft.

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