Scams are becoming more sophisticated and widespread. This practical course helps you understand how they work and how to protect yourself.
You’ll learn to recognise warning signs across phone, email, text and online scams, and understand the psychological tactics used to create urgency and trust. Real-world examples help bring these risks to life.
You’ll leave with clear, practical strategies to safeguard your information, verify contacts and respond confidently if something seems wrong.
- Hybrid (face to face and online simultaneously)
- How to recognise the most common scams, including bank impersonation calls, phishing texts, fake government messages, tech support scams and investment fraud
- Understand how scammers create urgency, build trust and manipulate emotions, often catching even the most cautious people off guard
- Learning simple, effective strategies such as the “Golden Pause”, verifying requests independently, and knowing when to hang up or ignore a message
- What to do if they have been scammed, how to report incidents, and where to seek support
With real-life examples, clear explanations and practical advice, this course aims to build confidence, reduce risk, and empower individuals to stay safe in an increasingly complex digital world.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Identify the most common types of scams, including phone, text, email and impersonation scams, and understand how they operate. They will recognise key warning signs such as urgency, unexpected requests, and attempts to obtain personal or financial information
- Participants will develop practical skills to respond safely to suspicious contacts, including how to verify requests independently, avoid clicking on unsafe links, and confidently end or ignore scam communications. They will understand the importance of simple protective behaviours such as the “Golden Pause” and checking directly with trusted organisations.
- The course will also equip participants with knowledge of what to do if they have been scammed, including immediate steps to limit harm, how to report scams, and where to access support services.
- Overall, participants will gain increased confidence, awareness, and the ability to make safer decisions in everyday situations, helping to protect both themselves and others from scams.
