The Australian Federal Police have warned anyone who received traffic fines via email to delete the messages immediately.

The emails ask people to pay a fine of $150 for negligent driving.

The AFP said the emails were a scam and asked people not to pay any money or click any attachments or links.

AFP national cyber crime coordinator Superintendent Adrian Norris said the email contained a computer virus.

"This email has taken off widely today and looks legitimate, and many people have been compromised, so I would urge people to be vigilant," Superintendent Norris said.

"The AFP never sends out traffic infringement notices via email, so if you have received an email that purports to be from the AFP and have doubt about its authenticity, do not make a payment or provide personal details."

The fake infringement notice features the AFP logo as well as a Commonwealth of Australia 2015 copyright.

Superintendent Norris said if links within the message were clicked, the recipient's computer is infected with malware "which renders it inoperable".

At that point ransomware is activated and the person is asked to pay thousands of dollars to reactivate their computer.

ACT Policing's Facebook page features comments from people who said they had received the fake notices.