With a platform as large and diverse as Facebook, it’s easy to understand how users often confuse real security threats with fake ones. One such hoax is spreading like wildfire across the site this week, with a message warning users not to accept a friend request from an alleged hacker named Jayden K. Smith.

“Please tell all thcontacts in your Messenger list, not to accept Jayden K Smith friendship request,” the message reads. “He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received.”

It’s actually sensible advice to be careful who you accept friend requests from on Facebook, but there is no way a user could gain control of your profile just because they became your friend.

This kind of chain mail hoax is one of the oldest in the book, and it often just uses different names to be recycled on social media. The worst part: it relies on well-meaning users to propagate it as they warn friends and family. So if you see it, don’t share it — and stop this scam in its tracks.

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