A Tauranga squadron leader is safe and well in the Bay of Plenty today – despite emails from her personal account claiming she has been robbed at gunpoint in the Philippines.

Air Training Corps 16 Squadron Flight Lieutenant Lynn White's email has been hijacked by hackers looking to turn a false story into a fast profit.

Flight lieutenant Lynn White is in Tauranga - not the Philippines.

The hacker has sent out an email saying that Lynn took an unannounced vacation trip to Manila.

'Everything was going fine until last night when we got mugged on our way back to the hotel, all cash, credit cards and our mobile phones were stolen at gunpoint,” the email reads.

'It was such a horrible experience for us, luckily we had left our passports in the safe at the hotel. I have been to the police and they directed her to the embassy, and they are not helping issues at all.

'I have cancelled all our cards, it appeared I acted quickly enough or they almost would have succeeded in clearing out my bank account.”

The email claims Lynn needs US$2850 to get back home and that refunds will be given once she is back home.

Speaking to SunLive from Tauranga this morning, Lynn says her whole email account has been hacked.

'My whole email inbox has been spammed as far as I know,” she explains. 'A few of them have contacted me and I have said no.

'I am still trying to get access to my email again so I can let people know not to do anything about it. But at the moment I am struggling to get hold of Yahoo.”

Lynn can only notify people via email and she can't access her inbox.

'Nothing comes back to me,” laughs Lynn.

Lynn says if people do receive an email from her asking for money, they should ignore it and delete it.