Account takeover happens when someone else gains access to your account — usually through your email, phone number, device, or login details. Once they're in, they may change your details, view your personal information, attempt payments, send messages from your account, or lock you out.

How accounts get taken over

Scammers use a few common methods to get in:

• Phishing: a fake message that leads you to a website designed to look like a real login page.
• Password reuse: using a password of yours that's already been leaked from another site.
• Malware installed on your device.
• Remote access software you were talked into installing.
• A one-time code you shared with someone who called or messaged claiming to need it.
• Breached credentials bought or found online.

A typical version starts with a message asking you to log in. You enter your details on a site that looks genuine, and soon after you get password reset emails, login alerts, or notifications of changes you didn't make. In another version, someone calls and says they need a one-time code to "verify" you — sharing that code hands them access to your account.

Warning signs

Watch for: login alerts you didn't trigger, password reset emails you didn't request, messages asking you for a one-time code, changes to your account details you didn't make, missing emails, unusual device activity, or losing access to your phone number.

How to protect your account

1. Use a strong, unique password for your Xe account.
2. Secure the email account linked to your Xe account — it's often the easiest way in for a scammer.
3. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever it's offered.
4. Never share a one-time code or authentication code with anyone, even someone who says they're from Xe.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recommends MFA as one of the most effective ways to protect an online account, and its phishing guidance explains why passwords and one-time codes are common targets for attackers.

If you think your account's already been compromised

1. Change your password from a device you trust.
2. Secure your email account too, if you think that's been affected — it can be used to reset everything else.
3. Remove any remote access software you didn't intend to install.
4. Check your recent account activity for anything you don't recognise.
5. Contact us through official channels only — never a number or link from an unexpected message.
6. If money or personal information may be at risk, contact your bank or payment provider too.

When you contact us, use the number on our Help Centre, and have your account email and a rough timeline of what happened ready — it helps us investigate faster.