Course Overview: Scams are more common, more convincing, and more technologically sophisticated than ever. In this interactive, self-paced course, participants will explore how modern scams work, including phishing, smishing, imposter scams, romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud, and AI-enabled scams.
The course provides practical strategies for protecting personal information, securing accounts, verifying suspicious messages, and responding safely if targeted. Participants will also practice identifying red flags and leave with clear steps they can use to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how common scams work, including phishing, smishing, imposter scams, romance scams, and AI-enabled scams.
- Explain how scammers use human psychology and technology to manipulate victims.
- Identify common red flags in suspicious calls, texts, emails, and other forms of communication.
- Describe basic prevention tactics to help avoid being targeted by scammers and the appropriate response steps to take if targeted by a scam.
Target Audience: This course is intended for any member of the public who is interested in learning how to protect themselves from scams and fraud.
Cooperative Partners: This tuition-free online training was developed by the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and was originally supported by cooperative agreement 15JCOPS-24-GK-02527-PPSE by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
Learning Hours: .75 hours including the pre-test and post-test.