US authorities have charged 38 members of an international gang that allegedly used spam emails to steal bank account details and passwords from thousands of customers.

A federal grand jury in the US jury has charged 38 people with alleged phishing activities.

The group is accused of defrauding thousands of victims by sending them fake emails, purporting to be from their bank and then using replies to gain access to their accounts.

The US Department of Justice says the gang unleashed more than 1.3 million spam emails in just one phishing attack.

The gang targeted customers of Citibank, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Comerica Bank, Wells Fargo, eBay and PayPal.