SPOTTING A SCAM

A light dose of common-sense advice for teens hoping to avoid online scams.

While tallying a few general types of scams and other cybercrimes and citing a few high-profile examples, Sanderson familiarizes readers with some relevant vocabulary—like the difference between spear phishing, clone phishing, and angler phishing—and adds basic pointers on, for instance, not giving out personal information or friending strangers, confirming that charities are legitimate, and scrutinizing online retail sites. She emphasizes the vast scale of cybercrime, cites the (possibly surprising to readers) statistic that people under age 20 disproportionately fall victim to it, and urges those who have been scammed to gather evidence, talk to a trusted adult, and report incidents to the appropriate authorities. The final section, “Be a Responsible Digital Citizen,” offers helpful general guidelines to live by. While the approach is somewhat bland, the repetition of information supports striving readers, and all teens should come away more aware that there are some bad, clever actors out there—and what to do about them. Ample stock photos showing diverse young people, including a wheelchair user, add visual interest, and the varied layout, with information clearly labeled with headers and pulled out in text boxes, breaks the information down into manageable chunks.

Brief, practical, and cogent.