Kids love playing games but there are so so many scammers out there targeting your children. You want your children to enjoy the fun, positive online game environment but at the same time, protect them from unwanted scams and phishing?
In this article, we will go deeper into how these 7 tips will help your children know how to avoid gaming scams.
Also, don’t forget to download CyberPurify Kids – FREE extension that helps you detect and blur 15 types of harmful content online, ensuring your children’s healthy online environment.
7 tips to help your children know how to avoid gaming scams
Do not use Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in the account profile
The personal information contained in account records can be widely publicized, so you should advise your child never to use his or her real name, address, or phone number when setting up a gaming account.
Use a fake name instead, or skip the profile building steps if possible.
Only purchase official game platforms
Be very careful with fake websites and mobile apps. Phishing sites can look very professional or look very similar to the official website, however, they often contain malicious code intended to steal personal information.
For example, there are 4,700 fake Fortnite websites. Fake domains that mimic the look and feel of the official website as much as possible and trick your kids into following their offers to get free coins in the game or buy coins at an unimaginable good price, then they collector the child’s personal information.
Another trick is that these sites encourage your kids to share the link with their friends to get free coins. This way, your kids are unknowingly helping the scam reach more people.
So your children need to be very careful with all the offers that the game gives you “for free”, these offers appear densely on the communities, chat groups in the game.
Use strong password. Protect it at all cost
Here are some tips:
- Your child needs to choose a password that they don’t use anywhere else online.
- Passwords are easy for children to remember, but difficult for others to guess. Don’t use common passwords like 123456 or contain your child’s date of birth or name. On many websites, your child can even use spaces.
- Never share your password with anyone.
- Using separate passwords for different accounts also helps prevent cybercriminals.
If possible, your child should also enable two-factor authentication to help better protect their account from unauthorized access.
Beware of suspicious links
Do not click on these links, even if they appear to come from in-game friends. Suspicious links contained on websites or sent through in-game chats, and via email can download malware on your child’s device and steal login details and your password, which could allow cybercriminals to access your child’s personal information and game assets.
Also, beware of sites that give players points when viewing or clicking on ads. Here is also a way for you to teach kids how to avoid online scams on Facebook.
Use online content filtering tools
Gaming sites usually contain pop-up ads or ads having pornographic content, that’s why you need to make sure you have installed online content filtering tools like CyberPurify Kids – detect and filter 15 types of harmful content.
This helps ensure a safer online environment for your children, avoid exposure to inappropriate ads as well as links to porn sites.
Help your children know how to spot fake domains
- Misspelled and grammatical website names: A key indicator of a spoofed site is a misspelled URL. Fraudsters can slightly change the URL name, if not careful, it will be difficult to recognize, such as using amaz0n.com or amazon.org instead of amazon.com.
- Unable to find return policy, sales, and privacy policy, or if it has, unclear information.
- The back button to the previous page is disabled: your child is stuck on a page and cannot go back.
- No business contact information, such as phone number and address.
- Your child can use online reviews by searching for reviews for the site’s name in Google to find out if there’s any relevant feedback.
- There is a key icon at the beginning of the website name: This icon means that a website is secured with a TLS/SSL certificate that encrypts user data.
- Look up the information below that icon:
Instruct your child to click on the icon, it will show “Issued by: [Company Name]” under “Certificate (Valid)”. Take CyberPurify.com as an example:
Instruct your children how to recognize fake apps
Major app store platforms like Apple’s App Store and Google’s Playstore regularly monitor content and remove malicious apps. However, your child still needs to be wary of the apps he downloads. Here are some signs of a fake app:
- The name of the app publisher (usually displayed under the app name) is similar to the main app, but not exactly.
- The application has information in the description that is unclear or misspelled.
- The application does not have any user feedback or any user review.
- The app requires too many permissions to install.
- The app has a lot of ads that pop up or constantly ask your child to enter personal information.
Last point is?
Build an open relationship of trust
The conversation is both a foundation and a catalyst for building meaningful and intimate relationships between parents and children. Talking is considered one of the best ways for children to be self-aware and proactive to stay away from dangers on the Internet. This is also crucial in your strategies on how to protect kids from scams.
Therefore, you need to regularly share and talk with your children about problems on the Internet such as scams, phishing, sexting, online bullying, sharing too much on social networks, using drugs, etc. Let your child understand and proactively protect themselves from these troubles.
Don’t forget to keep communication open and calm so your child knows that he or she can come to you when he feels insecure or worried by any content or interaction online without fear of judgment or being yelled at!
Wish parents better protect their children online!!
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