June school holidays 2025: Learn to be a scam sniffer
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Amily Goh
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – In the past, people encountered scams through fake letters, phone calls or too-good-to-be-true deals from strangers.
But in today’s digital world, where everything from banking to leisure happens online, scammers are trying more ways to reach people, including children like yourselves.
Scammers are driven primarily by financial gain. They exploit people’s weaknesses to steal their money or personal information. Many such operations are organised in scam centres located in countries where weak enforcement create hubs for these illicit activities.
In this episode of nine2twelve, The Straits Times’ video series for kids aged nine to 12, we explain how scams work today, why young people are becoming targets and what you need to know to hold them off.
Check out the episode at str.sg/oRduB
Activity
Instructions: Some messages look like real offers, but they are just ways to steal your personal information. Circle the answer that you think is correct. Then check against the answers provided.
Scenario 1: Your dad gets an SMS text message saying, “Congratulations! You’ve won $1,000,000! Click the link below to claim your prize now!”
Link: https://free-money-prizes123.win/claim-now
Real or scam?
Answer: Scam
First, does your family have a reason to expect to win a million-dollar prize, especially if you have not joined any sweepstakes?
Next, look at the link. Trustworthy sites usually have familiar names like google.com and often end in .com, .org or .edu.
However, this website’s address ends in .win, which is unusual and suspicious. Furthermore, legitimate websites often have short, clean URLs, while this one appears long and messy – another possible sign of a scam.
Finally, scammers often try to create a false sense of urgency by using phrases such as “click now” to pressure you into acting quickly.
Opening a suspicious link could lead you to a phishing site – which is a fake website designed to trick you into giving away personal information – or cause viruses to be downloaded onto your device.
Scenario 2: Your older sister looks worried at dinner time. She received a message from her friend on Telegram saying, “Hey! My Telegram account got restricted. Can you help me unblock it? I need you to share your phone number with the bot so they can send you a code and verify I’m a real person.”
Real or scam?
Answer: Scam
Scammers can clone accounts or take over the real one by tricking the owner into sharing his or her login details. They then send messages pretending to be the owner to make the scam more believable.
If someone asks for your phone number or login code, or sends you a link with a “verification button”, do not follow the instructions.
The login code, or two-factor authentication code, is meant to protect your account. If you share this code, you are giving scammers access to log in from their own device.
Once they have control, they can pretend to be you and message your friends, ask them for money or steal your photos or videos to scare or blackmail you or your contacts.
Most people realise it is a scam only when they lose access to their account or when their friends report strange messages coming from them. Telegram will never ask for your code, or get you to help unblock someone.
Scenario 3: Your cousin loves playing Roblox and he has been saving up his allowance to buy Robux, a virtual currency used within the game. One day, while watching a Roblox YouTube video, he sees a comment: “Get 10,000 Robux instantly. No hacks, just enter your username and password to verify your account here: www.robux-get.win – it actually worked for me!”
Real or scam?
Answer: Scam
Real Robux costs money, and Roblox never gives it out simply by asking you to click on a link. In addition, official giveaways are announced by Roblox or its trusted creators, not via random YouTube comments or messages from strangers.
Even though it is just a game, your account can be valuable, especially if you have bought game skins or items. Scammers may try to steal your account to sell it, trick your friends or even access your parents’ credit card details if the account is linked.
Have you ever received a suspicious message or e-mail? What did you do? Share your experience with us at stdot@sph.com.sg
