These scams encourage recipients to send money or account information to the person supposedly "stuck" in a foreign country, or similarly in need. These emails appear to come from someone the recipient knows--either a familiar name, or a familiar address, scrounged from a hacked account or from publicly visible information on social networking sites.

If you know the person the email came from, consider calling them or personally letting them know that their account might have been compromised. NEVER EVER SEND MONEY to these scams, no matter who they claim they are! Hit that DELETE button.

Below is an example of the "I'm stuck" scam: