Suspicious phrase: send your full name and email address.

Feedback: You should think twice before responding to an unknown number, especially one claiming that you have been selected to participate in a raffle for concert tickets.

Scenario 4: Social Media Friend Request

Scenario Description: You received a friend request from an unknown person on social media.

Prompt: Social media friend request: A profile showing user7836353 trying to follow you on Instagram with no profile picture and no bio. Instagram is even indicating it is a new account with no mutual followers.

Suspicious phrases: profile showing user 7836353; new account with no mutual followers.

Feedback: If an account wants to follow you and was recently created and their username uses a lot of numbers or symbols, it’s likely a bot or a cyber criminal.

Scenario 5: Claim a Gift Card

Scenario Description: You received a text message from an unknown sender to claim a gift card.

Prompt: “Hey, click this link to claim a $1000 Apple gift card.”

Suspicious phrases: click this link.

Feedback: Cyber criminals will try to get you to click a malicious link to steal your information. Remember to be alert and ensure the link does not lead to a fake website, and that you know the sender.

Scenario 6: Grand Prize Winner

Scenario Description: You received a message on social media to let you know that you are a grand prize winner.

Prompt: Social Media Message from sarah63537: “Congrats! You’re our lucky grand prize winner. You’ve won a pair of Jordans, to collect your prize fill out this form with your address at giveaway.com.”

Suspicious phrases: fill out this form with your address at giveaway.com.

Feedback: This is a scam. Cyber criminals will try to get you to click a link that could be malicious or ask you to input your personal information to steal personal information such as your address or bank account information.

Scenario 7: Job Advertisement

Scenario Description: You received a job advertisement message from a potential recruiter, asking you to apply for their team.

Prompt: “Are you passionate about protecting the environment? Come join the Bottle company which attempts to reduce plastic waste. If you want to join our team, please include your name, address, social insurance number, banking information to apply. We’ll get back to you once we reviewed your application.”

Suspicious phrases: include social insurance number, banking information to apply.

Feedback: This is a scam. When applying for a job, a company may ask for your personal information after you passed the interview stage, however, this is at the initial application stage. Never send your banking information and social insurance number for a job.

Scenario 8: Celebrity Text Message

Scenario Description: You received a message from an unknown number who claims to be a well-known celebrity, asking you for funds.

Prompt: “Hey, it’s Drake! I need your help. This is urgent. I need you to transfer $2,000 so I can continue running through the six with the fam but my bank accounts are frozen. Send the funds to the following email aubrey$6dg@gmail.com”

Suspicious phrases: Drake; Urgent; Send the funds to the following email Aubrey$6dg@gmail.com.

Feedback: This is a scam. You should think twice before responding to an unknown number, especially one claiming to be a celebrity like Drake. Cyber criminals emphasize the urgency as a way to get you to send the funds without thinking.

Knowledge Library

Bibliothèque des connaissances

K-12 Zone

K-12 Cyber Awareness Month