Your teen's first scam will arrive in a DM
Not an email, not a phone call — a direct message from an account that looks like a person. It will be friendly, it will be urgent, and it will ask for something small. This page is what to show your teen before that message lands. Free to read, free to share, no signup for any of it.
Send this page to your teen — that's what it's for.
Four questions that catch almost every DM scam
Teens don't need a lecture on fraud. They need four questions they can run in the time it takes to read a message. If a DM trips any one of these, it's not real.
1. Does it rush me?
"Offer ends tonight." "Send it before they notice." "I need this in the next 10 minutes." Urgency exists for one reason — to stop someone pausing long enough to ask a friend or a parent. Real opportunities wait.
2. Does it move me off-platform?
"Add me on Telegram." "Text me here instead." "Let's move to WhatsApp." Every platform has reporting and moderation, and the scammer wants out of it before the real ask. Moving the conversation is the tell.
3. Does it want a code or a login?
"I accidentally sent my verification code to your number — can you send it back?" That code is the last thing standing between a stranger and an account. No real friend needs it, ever, for any reason.
4. Does it pay too easily?
$300 a week to like posts. A free console for filling in a form. A brand deal that arrives unprompted in the DMs of an account with 200 followers. Money that arrives without work is bait for a bank login or a fake overpayment.
One yes is enough. Don't reply, don't click, screenshot it and show someone.
The scams that actually target teenagers
These are not the scams that target you. They arrive on the apps your teen already lives in, and they're built around teenage pressure points: money, status, embarrassment, and speed.
Sextortion
A new follower turns flirtatious fast, asks for an image, and the moment it arrives the tone flips to threats and demands for money. It escalates within hours, often overnight. The counter: paying doesn't stop it. Tell your teen now, calmly, that if this ever happens they come to you and nobody will be angry.
The "easy online job"
Task work, product reviews, or "brand ambassador" DMs promising real money for trivial effort. The first small payment is real — that's the hook. Then comes a deposit, a fee, or bank details. The counter: a job that pays you before you work is not a job.
"Send me the code"
A message from a friend's hacked account asking for a verification code, a vote in a contest, or help getting back into an account. The friend is real; the person typing isn't. The counter: verify on a different app or in person before doing anything an account asks.
The QR code that isn't
A sticker over a real code on a parking meter, a concert flyer, or a "free merch" post. It opens a convincing login or payment page. The counter: type the address yourself. A camera can't tell you where a code actually goes.
Put these warning signs on their phone
Get all four as a printable one-page PDF they can keep on their phone — plus one short email a month when a new scam starts hitting teens. Unsubscribe anytime.
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Things they can use without asking you first
Everything here is free and works without an account — which matters, because a teen who has to ask a parent for a login will just not check.
SMS Scam Checker
Paste a suspicious message and get an instant read on the red flags in it. Runs entirely in the browser — the message is never uploaded, which is the part teens actually care about.
Scam IQ Quiz
Fifteen real-or-scam questions. Take it as a competition rather than a lesson — most teens beat their parents on the social ones and lose on the payment ones.
Phishing Link Checker
Paste a link before tapping it. Useful for the QR codes, giveaway posts, and "claim your prize" pages that make up most of what lands in a teen's DMs.
"I've Been Scammed — What Now?"
If it already happened: a few questions, then an immediate plan for what to do first and how to limit the damage. No account, no judgment.
How to bring it up without it becoming a lecture
The goal isn't a teen who is frightened of the internet. It's a teen who tells you quickly when something goes wrong — because the damage of most of these scams is decided in the first hour.
Lead with the scam, not the rule
"Have you seen the one where someone asks for your verification code?" invites an answer. "Don't talk to strangers online" ends the conversation. Teens are often already aware of these — start from what they know.
Say the amnesty out loud, in advance
The single most useful sentence: "If anything like this ever happens, you can tell me and you will not be in trouble." Say it before anything happens. Sextortion works almost entirely on a teen's fear of the parent's reaction.
Make it mutual, not supervisory
Show them a scam that nearly caught you. Compare quiz scores. A teen who thinks they're helping you spot scams engages; a teen being monitored goes quiet and moves to an app you don't know about.
Repeat it more than once
One conversation is a memory. The reflex comes from meeting these messages more than once, in a context where getting it wrong costs nothing. That's the entire idea behind practice.
The first hour matters more than the details
If images are being used to blackmail your teen: the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children advises getting help before deciding whether to pay, because cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail. Report the account inside the app and block the sender — but do not delete the profile or the messages, because they help stop the blackmailer. File a report at report.cybertip.org, and use the free Take It Down service to get images removed. NCMEC's 24-hour line is 1-800-843-5678. Say the thing that matters most out loud: the blackmailer is to blame, not your teen.
If money or an account is involved: change the password and turn on two-factor authentication from a device you trust, then contact the bank or payment app immediately — speed matters far more than the amount. Report it at reportfraud.ftc.gov and forward scam texts to 7726 so carriers can block the sender. Our free step-by-step tool walks through the rest in order.
Go deeper on any one of these
The Snapchat Sextortion Playbook
How the scam actually unfolds hour by hour, and exactly what to do in each one.
Internet Safety for Tweens and Teens
A full guide by age, from first phone to first job application.
The "Easy Online Job" Scam
Why the first payment is always real, and what the second message asks for.
The QR Code Scam Coming for Your Teen
Where the fake codes turn up, and the one habit that defeats all of them.
Protecting an older parent too? The scams targeting them are completely different →
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