Anyone handling job offers, rentals, purchases, investments, family emergencies, account alerts, online relationships, or unexpected payment requests.
Course 48 · Money course 09
Spot Scams & Protect Your Money
Recognize pressure tactics, verify identities and offers, protect payments and accounts, and respond quickly if something goes wrong.
Before you start
For practice, write down planned sign-in protection and transaction alerts. If reviewing your own accounts, you can turn these on where appropriate; no real account is needed for the exercises.
See everything you’ll needWhat you’ll leave with
A personal anti-scam system with verification steps, payment rules, job and rental screens, incident response, and trusted contacts.
Start course Start without an account. Sign in to save lesson progress across devices.
Your project
Start with the practice files. Build your project one lesson at a time.
Practice files are free without an account. Sign in to save your project record in My Proof: a description, checklist, and optional work link. Keep the original files in your own app or notebook; saving a project record does not upload them.
- Get your materialsDownload the practice worksheetUse the downloadable worksheet or toolkit alongside the lesson instructions.
- Make your projectView the project checklist Work in your own notebook, document, or software. Use the supplied practice examples when you prefer.
- Keep a private recordSave a project record Sign in to save a description and checklist, then return to update them.
Optional course overview
Watch an introduction.
This overview from Federal Trade Commission introduces ideas you’ll practice in the lessons.
Watch directly on YouTubeFederal Trade CommissionMy Action Plan to Avoid ScamsYouTube
Course handbook
Know the route before you begin.
Here’s what you’ll need and what you’ll make. You can return to this guide during any lesson.
- For practice, write down planned sign-in protection and transaction alerts. If reviewing your own accounts, you can turn these on where appropriate; no real account is needed for the exercises.
- Save official contact paths for your bank, card issuer, mobile carrier, email provider, credit bureaus, FTC, and local law enforcement.
- Use fictional scam examples and redact personal identifiers, codes, account numbers, and victim details.
Finish with proof you can use.
Build an anti-scam playbook with red-flag library, independent verification ladder, non-negotiable payment rules, job and rental checklists, account hardening, incident timeline, and reporting contacts.
Save a project record in My ProofSee project checklist and review criteria
- A table for ten fictional scenarios. Record the story, pressure tactic, payment or information requested, when to pause, and a safe next action.
- A five-level verification ladder and completed verification record for three fictional high-pressure scenarios.
- Written payment-safety rules, a checklist of account protections, a list of alerts, and a review of trusted devices.
- A combined job, rental, and opportunity screen applied to three fictional offers with source trail and decision.
- A first-hour, first-day, and first-week incident checklist plus a fictional case timeline and evidence index.
- A one-page pause-and-verify card, trusted-contact agreement, family verification phrase plan, and quarterly review schedule.
Three ideas to help you along the way
Three useful ideas
The rules behind the steps.
Pause breaks the script
Scammers use urgency, fear, secrecy, affection, authority, scarcity, or greed to prevent independent checking.
Verify through a second path
Do not use the link, phone number, caller identity, or contact supplied by the unexpected message as the proof.
Recovery speed matters
Banks, card issuers, platforms, carriers, credit bureaus, and authorities may have time-sensitive ways to limit damage.
What do these words mean?
Key words
Key terms worth knowing.
- Imposter scam
- Fraud in which someone pretends to be a trusted person, business, agency, or authority to obtain money or information.
- Phishing
- A deceptive message or site designed to steal information, credentials, or money or install harmful software.
- Money mule
- A person used to receive or transfer fraud proceeds, sometimes after being deceived by a job or relationship story.
- Chargeback
- A card-issuer process for disputing certain transactions under network, account, and legal rules.
Your route6 lessons.
6 lessons.
One useful project.
Work in order the first time. Each lesson makes something the next lesson can use.
- 1Up next
Recognize the scam playbook
Identify impersonation, urgency, secrecy, unusual payment, guaranteed reward, remote access, and information-harvesting patterns.
- 225 min
Verify through an independent path
Confirm people, organizations, accounts, listings, and emergencies without using contact information supplied by the claim.
- 325 min
Protect payment and account access
Set safer payment, credential, device, and transaction-monitoring rules before pressure arrives.
- 430 min
Screen job, rental, and opportunity scams
Verify offers that target urgent needs for work, housing, income, education, or investment.
- 525 min
Respond quickly after a scam or exposure
Prioritize money, account, identity, device, evidence, reporting, and emotional support actions after suspected fraud.
- 615 min
Build a pause-and-verify habit
Create household rules, trusted checks, account alerts, response cards, and regular reviews that make scam resistance automatic.
Use the tools
See all tools Tools to help you practice.
Source transparency
Sources and further study.
Explore the references behind the lessons and take your learning further. Source notes explain access and reuse.
Ready when you are
Start lesson one Start with the first useful move.
You’ll always know what to do, what to make, and where to go next.
Open collaboration ideaHelp keep this complete course free.
Potential collaboration: Banks, credit unions, consumer organizations, employers, and digital-safety programs
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