🚨 Spotting a Scam
The most important session in this track.
🔥 Warm Up — 2 minutes
Ask: “Has anyone ever tried to trick you — online, in a game, anywhere?” Listen properly before moving on.
“Every trick in the world does the same four things. Once you can see them, you can see all of them.”
🤖 The Activity — 15 minutes
Write the four signs on paper, big:
1. HURRY. “Right now or you lose it.” Real things wait.
2. SECRET. “Do not tell your parents.” This one alone is enough. Stop.
3. TOO GOOD. Free coins, free money, a prize you never entered.
4. ASKING. For a code, a password, a photo, money, or a favour.
Now make up three fake messages together — a game offering free coins, a text saying a parcel is stuck, a friend’s account asking for a code. For each one, your child names which of the four signs are present.
🧩 The Twist — 5 minutes
Make one that has only one sign. Harder to spot, and much more like the real thing.
Then the rule that covers everything: “If someone asks me for a code, a password, or money — I stop and I tell a grown-up. Every time. Even if it looks like a friend.” Have them say it. Then say it again tomorrow.
Say this together, out loud: “Nobody real will ever ask me for a code. If someone asks me to keep a secret from my parents, that is the sign that I must tell them.”
Scam Spotter Badge
Can name the four signs and the one rule
Parent Notes — tap to expand
▼The four structural features of social engineering — urgency, secrecy, an offer that is too good, and a request — plus a single rule that generalises to scams they have not seen yet.
- Which of the four signs is the most serious on its own?
- What do you do if a message looks like it is from a friend?
- Why would someone pretend to be in a hurry?
If your child mentions something that has actually happened to them, stop the session and deal with that instead. It matters far more than finishing the activity.
Revisit this session more than once. Scam awareness fades, and the secrecy sign is the one that protects against far more than fraud. Say the rule again in a month, and again after that.