A woman has been conned out of $4,000 (£2,400) by scammers who hacked into a Facebook page belonging to one of her friends.

Jayne Scherrman lost the money after her friend Grace Parry had her log-in details stolen. Parry's friends started receiving messages saying that she and her husband had been robbed in London and needed funds to get home.

Scherrman received several of the messages, as well as a call from a man with a British accent claiming to be an immigration official.

"He said the woman and her husband were being detained and that more money was needed to fly them home," police spokesman Jason Selzer told the Press Association. "She sent three different wire transfers to London."

Scherrman sent the money to help out her friend, while Parry was trying to get the word out that she had been hacked, but was locked out of her account.

"The sad truth is that people are far too trusting of messages they receive via social networks," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Sophos.

"Just because it appears to come from a friend doesn't mean that it's a friend who typed and sent it. It's perfectly possible that your online friends have had their account passwords stolen and have lost control of their Facebook profiles."