AI School › The dangers · Lesson 21 of 130

🎣 Scams and strange messages: spotting them

AI makes scams more convincing. Urgency, prizes and secrets are the alarm bells.

Scammers have always existed, and with AI their messages have become more convincing: flawless writing, cloned voices, even fake video calls. A message can look like it comes from a bank, a famous shop or a relative in trouble. Luckily, almost all scams use the same three tricks: urgency ("reply now!"), prizes ("you won!") and secrecy ("just between us").

When you spot one of the three, stop: that is the moment to show the message to an adult. Never click strange links, never give codes or passwords, never send photos to strangers. And if a voice on the phone sounds exactly like grandma asking for money: hang up and call her back on her real number. Scammers hate people who verify.

🎒 Try it in class (or at home)

Anti-scam workshop: the teacher prepares 6 messages (3 genuine, 3 scams). In groups, find the alarm bells and give each message a danger score from 1 to 5.

⚠️ Watch out

No serious organisation asks for passwords or codes by message. Whoever asks is almost certainly scamming.

← Lesson 20: Deepfakes: when videos lie · Lesson 22: Bias: when AI is unfair →

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