"It's me — I'm stuck, please send money"

A message arrives from a friend or relative on Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp: they're locked out, stranded, or in a sudden emergency and need money or a code right now. It really looks like them — because their account has been hacked, and the criminal is messaging everyone on their friends list.

A common version asks you to read back a code that "was sent to your phone by mistake." That code is actually a reset code for one of your own accounts — reading it out hands your account to the criminal.

What to do: if a friend asks for money, a code, or a vote on a link out of the blue, check on another channel first — phone them, or message them somewhere else. Never read out a code. The real friend will understand the caution.