Kids are unaware that more time on the internet leads to more exposure to online scams. Internet scams can attack you and your child from anywhere.
Cybercriminals were there from the day the internet evolved. They have come up with endless ways to get access to your personal information on the date.
Scammers not only target grown-ups, but kids are also their target. Scammers try a variety of ways to sneak into your account. Scammers can be there on your phone via email, text messages, and phone calls. Scammers steal your personal information and make you pay for anything.
It would be best if you were more attentive to scammers’ ways to get you and your information. Learn yourself first about an online scam till you feel secure in your knowledge. After, you can transfer that knowledge in a simple way to your kid. Open communication about the issue is the safest way to protect your child.
Kids have constant access to mobile phones with different applications and software. They use the internet for many reasons, and sometimes knowingly or unknowingly, they can be the victim of online scams.
Most of the time, kids use the internet to surf social media or to play online games. Hence, this is where kids are being targeted by online scams the most.
Scams via Social Media
Social media is a broad media platform where unethical and illegal activities can happen. Teenagers and the target of scammers are in social media; hence scammers are active on social media.
As a parent, you should have an open conversation about the dark side of social media. It would help if you made your kids aware of scammers on social media and what they can do.
Young people can be victims of identity theft by sharing every information openly, hence teaching and making kids aware about scammers at a young age helps to protect your kids from the scammers.
Scams via Online Games
Parents can’t help out their children unless they know how their children operate. Scammers can make your child purchase games from unofficial websites. And they can ask for banking and financial information through messages.
Your child should be aware of fake cheats, power-ups, and upgrades. They should be aware of the malicious code scammers can send to your child.
The Main Ways Parents Should Know Before, How Scammers Trap or Fool Your Kids:
Phishing
Phishing is a scam sent to you via email. About Scammers will invite you to click on the link they have sent to get your information. They will pretend to be of any legitimate company while getting your information.
That doesn’t matter whether you have an account there or not, but also they will target you. Scammers send you mail and millions of others; it does not matter if you have an account of the company or not. Many of you will get tricked and click on the link, and after this, you may log in to a fake website where scammers will get your information.
It’s easy to be a victim of phishing if you are not attentive enough. Suppose you have ordered anything from the ABC website after there comes an email mentioning the shipment problem. In this case, 90% of us will click that link.
How to spot phishing:
- You can have a sense of urgency.
- You can look for the HTTPS (not for HTTP) and padlock icon in the address bar. Most fake websites use HTTP on their address bar.
- They may request to have payments through a non-secure method that it is easy to track your personal information.
- Keep your eye on any grammar and spelling mistakes. Legitimate companies rarely make these kinds of mistakes.
Smishing
SM in Smishing is a short message. Smishing is about contacting you through text messages. Scammers sent you a text message as SMS (Short message service). Phishing was there for the past few years, but Smishing is a recent problem. Not only emails now we need to be alert about every text that appears on the phone.
In Smishing, scammers sent you a link in the form of a positive message that may be of some deals or offers. And in the course of getting an offer, you may end up paying for something you won’t get back.
How to spot Smishing:
- You can have a sense of urgency in the text message.
- Messages can look real but not really.
- SMS can vary from the previous one.
- The message contains a malicious link.
- There can be spelling and grammar mistakes. Legitimate companies rarely make mistakes here.
Vishing
V in Vishing is a voice message. We all may have encountered strange phone calls, calls from national or international phone numbers. Spoofing the number is pretending as calling from a particular number. They can call you from a different number from a different location and may trick you through Vishing. They even make you pay for unknown reasons.
How to Spot Vishing:
- Caller contact as representative of any medicare, social security, and lucky draw. A representative from any sector will only contact you if you have requested them. Unless you have requested, no one will call you for information through calls and emails.
- You can have a sense of urgency during a call.
Questions To Consider By Both Parents and Kids
Who creates this?
Whom are they targeting?
Who gets paid after a click?
Who gets harmed or benefited?
Why Scammers Target Kids Online
Kids don’t have much knowledge about the digital world. They lack the skill and experience to use and navigate securely online. Every kid is there in the internet world. So kids are an easy target for scammers.
Kids provide their personal information whenever the internet asks them, and this action makes them target. Gaining access to the kids’ world is quite easier as compared to adults.
Do you have a basic safeguard set up for your kid’s account? Making your kid more aware and setting up a safe internet can reduce some risk.
Most Common Scams Kid’s Gets Targetted
Social Media Scams
Many kids fall for an online survey that pops up on their feed. Kids keep their personal information while filling up the form. Scammers access their accounts and use that information for different unethical purposes.
To save your kids from social media scams, you need to aware of your child about not sharing personal information on social media. Also, it would be best if you taught them about the consequences of giving personal information to random strangers on the internet.
Luxury goods in lower price
Everyone can get attracted when there is an offer in luxury goods like iPhone, designer dress, gadgets, and many more. You may know that all the offers you see on the internet are not legitimate, but your kids might not know that and may end up believing those offers.
Most of these offers and ads are scams, and kids can easily fall for those scams. Once your kids order such goods and provide them money, either they receive low-quality goods, or goods even don’t exist.
Identity theft
Identity theft is a major and the most popular issue in the digital world—theft of both personal and financial information as possible. Kids may be unaware of provided personal, social, and financial information to scammers.
You can see many people create fake accounts, mostly of celebrities and scam people. Children may think those profiles are real and may even interact with fake accounts, thinking it is real.
Contests
Scammers will organize the contests to gather entry amounts, personal data, and identity theft. Sometimes teen applicants win, but they have to pay a small amount to have a large prize.
Kids are even asked to share their bank detail so that the organizers can deposit their winning amount, but in reality, those scammers will misuse your bank account and even take money from the account.
Scholarships
There are many fake scholarships offers that you can find online, adults can easily identify such fake offers, but kids may not be able to identify them.
Many kids want to finance their studies and help their parents. In this process, they became a victim of an online scam. Those scholarships offer attempts to steal the personal information of kids.
How Can You Protect Your Kid’s From Scams
Following are the best practices you can adopt as a parent for keeping your kid safe from scams:
Use Best Parental Control Apps and Software.
You should install parental control software and apps in every device kids access. These apps and software provide you the information about websites they visit. It also tracks the person contacting them and the payment they are making for a purchase.
Some parental control tools are:
Teach Your Child about the Importance of Account Information
Always make sure your child knows the importance of their account information. You need to explain to them the privacy of account information and not share their information on any platform.
Your child’s account may have your personal information, so make sure they don’t share this information even with their friends.
A child should know, asking for any account information is a red flag for a scam.
Not to Share PII (Personal Identifiable Information )
Real names, address, phone number, and email id is not for sharing. Kids should not set up this information on any social media or in gaming profiles. Kids should not set even school information on their accounts. It’s better to skip the process of updating their personal information if possible.
Even if your kids have mentioned their personal information, ask them to make it private. Some social media might require your personal information, but they offer you the option of making it private.
Teach Them the Importance of a Strong Password
A strong password is always the best barrier for scammers. Teach your child to keep a strong and unique password.
Besides password they can even use other security features like two-factor authentication, fingerprints, facial recognizer, OTP, etc., for extra security.
Also, it would help if you taught your kids not to share their password with their friends and strangers. Many times teenagers share their passwords with their best friends, their boyfriend, or their girlfriend. And whenever there is a problem in their friendship or relationship, they might misuse each other’s accounts.
Stay Alert About Fake Websites and Apps
Scammers usually make fake websites of some popular websites which look the same. Sometimes even adults can get confused with fake and real websites.
Fake websites and apps always look real, but they contain malicious links and code. These links and codes direct kids to share personal information. Kids should avoid pop-ups, offers on the internet.
You should teach your kids if some websites ask you for too much information or contain too many links, then it can be fake.
Check Frequently if Your OS Security Feature is Up To Date
Remember to activate the security features of the operating system you access. And make sure you update the system frequently.
There are always new and string features in the new OS security updates; hence, you must keep your OS Security updated to protect your system from malware and scammers.
Report Scams
It is always necessary to report illegal and unethical activities around you. Scams must be reported immediately if you feel certain websites or profiles are scamming you or other people.
Final Thoughts
Parent’s need to be more conscious as your child gets older. It’s their responsibility to guide their child in every step while using the internet. Always stay up to date about the internet and establish a secure internet life.
Consistent education of internet security and its risk can make your family secure.
If you have any personal experience with scams, please feel free to mention them in the comment section below. Also, I would love to know how you are protecting your kids from online scammers. Do mention it in the comment section.
