A message about a delivery
A text says a parcel could not be delivered and a small fee of $1.45 is needed to rearrange it. There is a link. You are, in fact, expecting a parcel.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
Almost every scam has the same shape: something good or something frightening, a reason to act now, and a link. The details change every month. The shape does not.
Hurry is the giveaway
Real organizations can wait. Anything demanding action in the next ten minutes is trying to stop you checking with somebody.
Check somewhere else
Never use the link or number in the message. Go to the app or site yourself, or ring the number on the back of the card. If it was real, it will be there too.
People who fall for these are not stupid
They are professionally made and they catch careful adults every day. If it happens, telling somebody fast is what limits the damage.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Digital Detective
A message says: "Congratulations! You have won $500. Click within 1 hour to claim. Reply with your bank details."
Which of these are warning signs in that message?
Step 4: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
A message that looks like it is from your bank asks you to confirm your details on a link. What is the safest next step?
Step 5: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Agree the plan now
- Decide who you would tell if you thought you had been scammed.
- Ask them, today, what they would want you to do first.
- Save the number you would ring.
Why: The plan is useless if it has to be invented while you are panicking.
For a grown-up: The most useful sentence you can offer is that you will not be angry. It is what decides whether you find out in ten minutes or a week.
Step 6: What You Learned
- Scams have a shape: a hook, a hurry, a link.
- Hurry is there to stop you checking.
- Check through a route you chose, never the one in the message.
- If it happens, telling somebody quickly is what helps.
For the grown-up
Teach the shape rather than the examples. Scam text changes constantly, and a student who memorized "look for bad spelling" is defenceless against a well-written one — which is now the norm.
Watch for shame as the outcome. The most damaging thing about a scam at this age is the hour spent not telling anybody, and a lesson that implies only fools fall for it buys that hour.
Agree in advance what happens if it does: who they tell, and that nobody will be angry. That agreement is worth more than the warning signs.