Anyone who is connected to the internet will be a target of online scams. These scams are common and come in a variety of ways. Scams may be on your smart phone via text, in an email and even in the form of a phone call. The key to keeping yourself safe from getting scammed is to be aware of various methods scammers use to try and trick you.

Scammers want to get money out of you. They do this by stealing your personal information and having you pay for something you don’t need. Once you are more attentive to the methods online scammer use, you’ll be more quipped to recognize them and even more importantly, ignore them.

Let’s review what these methods are and also give you some tips on how to confirm whether an email, text or phone call is legitimate or not. There are three main ways scam artists use to get your attention and fool you. Phishing, SMishing and Vishing. Here is what each of them mean and how you can protect yourself if presented by one of these methods.

Phishing

Phishing happens when a scam is sent to you via email. Most often, a scammer will invite you to click a link to gain access to your personal information. They will pose as a legitimate company, such as a bank, an online streaming service or social media platform. Basically, any online account you may or may not have is fair game.

You may not even use one of these services and wonder why they are targeting you. This is why it’s called Phishing. The term was created to sound like the word ‘fishing’. Someone fishing on a lake will cast their hook out into the water. They don’t know how many fish are in the lake. They don’t see the fish or know whether any of them are even interested in the bait on the hook. But the person fishing knows there may be at least one fish that will take a bite and be hooked. Another way to look at it is this. Imagine someone fishing from a boat with a large net. Not all the fish will be caught, but many will.

In the same way an online scammer will send the same email to millions of people. It may be for a company you don’t have an account to. But many other people getting the same email could be tricked into clicking the link. By doing so they will log in to a fake website and the scammer will capture their username and password. This will give the scammer access to the user’s real account in order to steal their identity.

How to Protect Yourself: Never click on a link you receive in an email, even if you think the email is legitimate from an account you have. Simply go to your web browser and visit your account’s website directly or by using a bookmark you’ve created. Log in from there and check to see if there are any issues with your account.

Phishing only works because people are not paying attention. For example, let’s say you just ordered a package from Amazon. Shortly afterward, an email arrives stating that there is something wrong with your shipment. This is probably a coincidence. You can see how easy it would be to click the link since you just sent a package.

SMishing

SMishing is when a scammer sends a message to you via text. It is called SMishing because texting is also known as SMS (short message services). Just like Phishing, criminals who want to steal your information or money cast a wide net via text to catch people off guard. SMishing is a more recent problem. There has been a lot of information about email scams over the past few years. Now, we need to be also be on the look out for SMishing scams on our phones. Most often these are security texts which appears to be from a bank stating that something is wrong with your account. The goal is the same. To trick you into giving over your personal information.

SMishing may also come in the form of a positive message. It may be a great deal on something but by clicking you may end up paying for something you won’t receive. Most recently with the Coronavirus outbreak, there have been text scams offering free face masks or hand sanitizer.

How to Protect Yourself: Be careful when clicking links in a text. Never click on a link associated with an account you may have, such as a bank account or any online account, including Spotify or Facebook. Of course, friends may send you links to websites or videos. In that case, just be extra careful and pay close attention to who is sending you the link.

Vishing

The “V” in Vishing stands for voice call scams. We’ve all received them. We’ve all been greatly annoyed by these scam phone calls that come from a foreign or strange looking phone number. Worse yet, many calls that are spoofed to look like a local number. The Spoofing of a phone number is when a caller makes it look like they are calling from a particular number, but the call is actually from different location altogether.

Just like other scams you need to be ready to think before you respond. The call may sound like it’s from a legitimate establishment. Adults are often tricked into thinking the call is from their government’s tax collection service. If the call is fact real, they won’t be threatening the receiver with arrest by the police if they don’t pay immediately, as scammers often do.

How to Protect Yourself: Never give any personal information over the phone, even if the person sounds like they are from a real company. If in doubt, hang up and call the company directly. If the caller is uttering threats or demanding information or money, hang up! You can also do your part to stop the scammer by reporting it. Google the contact information for your country’s anti-fraud center. You can call them or submit a report online from their website.

Protecting Your Computer from Scams:

On a final note, it’s important for anyone with a computer or laptop to also protect themselves from malware and viruses. If you accidentally click on a bad email link, you have better protection with a secure computer.

1. Make sure your operating system’s security features are activated and up to date.
2. Then install a reputable anti-malware software program. This type of program will also offer protection when surfing the web, in the event you land on an infected website that is trying to access your personal information.

These types of malicious websites may also try to secretly install malware on your computer and direct you to fake websites. You could also be infecting other computers through email without your knowledge.

To ensure you don’t have malware currently on your computer, you can do a free scan using MalwareBytes.

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In today’s digital and always-online world, children are increasingly using the internet, and the trends predict that the numbers are only going to rise. The right time to talk to your kids and teens about cybersecurity is now. According to a 2015 study by Child Trends, 60% of children aged 3-17 used the internet at home, a steep climb from 11% in 1997.

Another study by The Center for Parenting Education found that kids and teens aged 8-28 spend about 44.5 hours in front of digital screens each week. Children are starting with the internet early, and it’s a parent’s job to add safeguards and filters to ensure a safe online environment.

However, parents can’t do it alone. The children need to be included in the discussion about how to stay safe online because, like it or not, the internet can be a dangerous place, and they can get caught in it. The web can help kids with their homework or research, and there’s no denying that it’s a game-changer for education. But there are bad actors and predators out there, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce at the most vulnerable members of society – children.

Here are the most critical topics you need to discuss with your children.

Passwords

If your kids are old enough to create and manage their accounts, talk to them about the importance of using strong passwords. The general rule is to use a combination of 8-12 upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols, or 3-4 random words strung together (e.g., cakeshorseversuszeppelin). Never use the same password for everything, because if one account gets compromised, all accounts will follow suit. Also, refrain from using personal information like names, pet names, street names, and birthdays.

Using a password manager can help store and encrypt all passwords, so you don’t have to memorize them. Make sure that you write down the master password and keep it in a secure location. Please don’t take a picture of it or save it on your phone.

Sharing Personal Information

Talk to your children about sharing too much personal information online, such as photos, videos, names, birthdays, and other sensitive data. Educate them about the fact that anything that they share or post online will be on the internet forever, so private social media posts must remain closed. Talk to them about the criminals looking to steal their information for identity theft, and the predators who will try to manipulate and exploit them.

Sex offenders like to collect photos and videos of kids, while some are known to trick children into believing they’re the same age as them. Most are violent and will spew obscenities regardless, so let your child know that anytime he or she feels threatened or uncomfortable while online, to tell you immediately. Getting an identity theft monitoring service for you and your children can help mitigate the risks of identity theft.

Viruses and Malware

Threat actors embed malware everywhere – software, apps, videos, and even websites. These are like bombs waiting for a trigger, and in most cases, the trigger is the user. Talk to your child about the dangers of downloading files online, clicking links from social media posts or unsolicited email, and visiting infected sites.

These may contain malicious programs that will install itself and infect the device, stealing sensitive data, or corrupting the entire system. Phishing attacks via email target anyone, and if an attacker gets your child to give up the network password, all your devices will be in jeopardy.

Also, warn your child about illegal movie streaming websites that are loaded with malicious ad popups and viruses. Install security software on all your devices and always keep the antivirus and firewall activated. For additional security or if you are running a business on a network, learn more about what the best hardware firewall is for your needs.

Using Unsecure WiFi

Your kids need to know that public WiFi is not secure and hackers lie waiting for the most vulnerable devices to exploit. Even if an establishment like a mall or coffee shop has a WiFi password, the attacker can get it too if he’s there enjoying a latte.

For added safety and peace of mind when using free WiFi, get a trusted VPN (virtual private network) service and use it on all your devices. A VPN creates a tunnel that encrypts your traffic, hiding your real IP address and location from anyone snooping around. Even your ISP won’t know what you’re doing online.

In a Nutshell

The internet is everywhere, and reality dictates that your child will encounter a facet of the online world sooner rather than later. While the internet is a fantastic place where kids can learn anything under the sun, the parameters of having a borderless online world coupled with freedom and anonymity are what makes the situation a scary one for parents.

The fact is, the internet is an unsafe place despite all the good stuff about learning and discovery, which is why every parent should start educating their kids about cybersecurity at the earliest opportunity.

Daniel William is Content Director and a Cyber Security Director at IDStrong. His great passion is to maintain the safety of the organization’s online systems and networks.  

He knows that both individuals and businesses face the constant challenge of cyber threats. Identifying and preventing these attacks is a priority for Daniel.

Many schools use our website to provide Google SafeSearch for safe filtered search of the internet. Our tools also include safe image search, wiki for kids and safe videos.  Now you can directly install the Safe Search App on any of your mobile devices for worry free access. Every filtered search happens within the app.

When users click on a website that appears in the search results, the user remains within the safety of the app.  Bottom line, any child using the app, whether they be a preschooler, tween or teen, never leaves the app during their entire search experience. What is so brilliant about having safe search on an app is that search results are not part of a web browser.

Important!  Our search app is not the same as parental control software.  If kids use another mobile browser to search the web, content will not be filtered, but the app still goes a long way to provide strict filtering of Google.

The Safe Search App – Downloads!

If you have an iPhone, iPad, Android smart phone or tablet such as Google Chrome, download The Safe Search Kids App for easy access.

To download these apps on your phone or tablet, you must reading this on the device where the app will be installed.  Go to www.SafeSearchApp.com on your device before clicking the links. 

Download the Safe Search App for iPhone/iPad – iOS devices.

Download the Safe Search App for Google Play – Android devices.

Download the Safe Search App for Kindle Fire / Amazon.

In addition to filtered search results of the entire internet using Google, the same search tools we feature on our website are available on the app.

Safe Image Search

Download safe images that are from safe websites, even if the image names are not properly named.  Many of these images are on educational websites.

Safe Video Search

Similar to our safe image search feature, the sources of our safe video results are from filtered websites. Videos are not taken from YouTube or other questionable video platforms.

Wikipedia for Kids

The app delivers filtered search results from our Wiki for Kids search resource.

We encourage you to continue to use our website for safe search results if you are on a computer or laptop that wasn’t created for app downloads. Bookmark this page and conduct of all your web searches on the top of this page for strict web filtering.

Download the Safe Search Kids APP for Mobile Devices, powered by Google

For these links to work, access this article through your mobile device or go to SafeSearchApp.com from your mobile device.

As we all know, life is full of ups and downs. This is what makes it essential for us to become mentally strong at a young age so that we can deal with whatever life throws at us, no matter how difficult. So why not get started with our kids?

If we allow our children to run away from challenges, failures, and disappointment, then we will be fostering negative qualities and personality traits that will hinder the child mentally as they progress from a toddler right through to adolescence. Facing such things will help them become self-esteemed and mentally strong.

Unfortunately, it’s quite challenging to raise your child in this way but fear not. We have compiled a list of some helpful tips to get you started!

Let Your Child Make Mistakes

Making mistakes is one of the inevitable things in life. You may have heard this phrase, ‘To err is human.’ This applies to kids too.

As a parent, you should let your kids make mistakes and then turn these mistakes into learning opportunities. Instead of yelling at them when they make blunders, you should speak to them and help them avoid repeating these mistakes.

Undoubtedly, mistakes are the most excellent teacher in life. Make sure that you teach them how to learn from these opportunities, and this will go a long way toward them becoming mentally strong and living a better life.

Encourage Your Child Face Fears Head-On

Every child has his/her own fears. If your child gets scared of something, he/she will most likely try to avoid it in the future. Being a parent, you should help your kids to face fears with confidence.

Cheer up your kids, their efforts, and help them become fearless and self-developed. If you encourage your kids to handle their fears and concerns in the correct way, they will gain confidence and develop mental tenacity that will serve them well into later life.

Make Gratitude a Priority

We all know that life is full of disappointments. But, parents should teach their kids to appreciate their blessings rather than dwelling on the negative. As a parent, you should encourage your kids to be grateful for the things they have.

Gratitude can boost their mood and help them become mentally strong. Teach your kids to turn their negative self-talk to positive ones. Your kids will focus on problem-solving and become optimistic by changing their perception of adverse situations and unfavorable results.

It would be a good idea to find some videos for kids, focusing on the importance of gratitude. You can show some of these videos to help them develop a deeper understanding of the benefits of practicing gratitude.

Create Personal Responsibility for Them

Accepting personal responsibility helps us in gaining and maintaining mental strength. It’s a requirement that we abide by our own moral compass and keep ourselves accountable for our actions, both good and bad. Your kids should learn to become responsible for their own actions, too.

As a parent, you should teach them to accept responsibilities – don’t let them put the blame on others to hide their flaws.

Teach Emotion Regulation Skills

In order to build up children’s mental strength, they should understand their negative emotions like anger, sadness, and jealousy. By understanding their feelings and emotions, you can teach them how to deal with uncomfortable emotions when they arise.

If your child feels angry, for example, you should try and help your child to understand this emotion so that they can identify it in themselves and stop it in its tracks a lot sooner. Of course, this is easier said than done, but it will undoubtedly get better with age.

Teach them to go for a walk or take some deep breaths to boost their mood. This will increase their confidence level and will promote a more rational state of mind.

Teach Proper Discipline

Teaching proper discipline to your child will best set them up for the stern challenges that life will throw their way. After all, they can’t have it all their own way when they grow up, so why should they now?

An ill-mannered toddler may not make good choices in life as he/she may not know how to deal with challenges, particularly rejection.

Be A Role Model For Your Kid

Far too often, parents operate with a “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude to parenting. This rarely works.

You must show your child how to be mentally strong and demonstrate the best ways to develop mental tenacity. As a parent, you should talk to your toddler about your goals and show them how you are dealing with the challenges coming in your way. Make mental strength a priority in your life and encourage your kid to follow the same.

Teach Your Kids the Importance of Character

In order to become mentally strong, one should have a strong character with a sense of morals and values. As a parent, it is advisable to create new opportunities for your children. Once your children learn morals and values, they will become capable of making good choices in life rather than giving up because of difficult situations.

Things to avoid

• Don’t be overprotective
• Avoid comparison between siblings
• Don’t ignore what your child is trying to say
• Don’t expect perfection from your toddler

It takes a lot of effort, energy, and a positive attitude to raise a mentally strong toddler. It’s not as simple as telling them to calm down when they are upset by sitting in the corner with a nice cup of green tea. You MUST be their role model, their leader. Set yourself as an example. It is essential to teach them these lessons mentioned in the article to give yourself the best chance of raising a well-mannered and mentally strong human being.