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In the experiment, conducted by Infosecurity Europe, researchers posed as marketers and asked strangers to fill in a survey in return for a chocolate bar. One of the questions on the survey asked people to reveal their passwords.

Nearly half of women questioned were willing to give the information to total strangers, while men seemed more wary, with only one in ten handing out their security details.

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researchers also asked for workers names and telephone numbers so that they could be entered into a draw to go to Paris, with this incentive 60% of men and 62% of women gave us their contact information", says Claire Sellick, event director at Infosecurity Europe.

As well as this information, many people also willingly handed over information such as their date of birth, which can prove invaluable to identity thieves. Another worrying trend from the research is that over half of those questioned used the same password for all of their online accounts.

Although the numbers remain worryingly high, they represent an improvement on the same trial from last year. In 2007 64% of people handed over security details, while the number dropped by two thirds to an average of 21% this year.

"This type of social engineering technique is often used by hackers targeting a specific organisation with valuable data or assets such as a government department or a bank," says Sellick.