Online Safety Game: Scams, Phishing and Dangers
An online safety game where messages arrive just like real ones: a parcel text, a bank email, a chat, a private message on a social network or a pop-up on a website. There are no options to pick from: you tap whatever is suspicious inside the message itself —the odd sender, the link that isn’t the company’s, the rush, being asked for a code, an impossible prize, someone asking you to keep a secret— and then decide whether the message is safe, a scam or a danger you need help with. All brands and people are made up.
Life Skills · Primary, Secondary, Sixth Form
The signs of a scam are in the message itself. Tapping them one by one trains the habit that matters in real life: stopping to look before you tap.
Some messages from family or friends with a rush or a present are safe. Tapping something normal costs time, so distrusting everything doesn’t work.
With a scam, don’t tap and block. With bullying, a dangerous dare or a stranger asking for photos or secrets, tell a trusted adult.
"A text from “Comet Parcels” arrives from a random mobile: it asks for £1.99 within 24 hours with an odd link. The student taps the number, the payment, the rush and the link, chooses “It’s a scam” and the game explains how to check tracking in the official app."
Prefer to learn without screens? Try this analogue version:
Write or print made-up messages: some scams, some dangerous and some normal ones from family or friends.
In pairs, underline in red what’s suspicious in each message and note what kind of trap it is.
Sort the messages into three columns: safe, scam or get help.
Discuss together what you would do with each one and who you would tell.
If you like Check the Message, these activities work similar skills:
Passwords, privacy, scams and getting along online as a test, with an explanation for every question.
Tuthor’s road safety game: traffic signs and pedestrian and cyclist situations.
Many schools host talks by the police or specialist organisations on using the internet safely.
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