I was testing out my project on a local Hardhat node I ran into this error while making transactions.
This error appears after you restart the node with npx hardhat node
Here is how to solve this without having to import a new account:
Open up your MetaMask window and click on the icon in the top right to display accounts. Go to Settings, then Advanced, and hit Reset Account.
Now the error will not appear when you make transactions.
Thanks for reading!