Lesson Plan! How To Spot A Robber: Teaching Senior Citizens How To Identify Scam Emails Claiming To Be Banks.

Senior citizens fall prey to online scams everyday! And these poor souls sometimes end up losing everything, with little to no avenues to get it back. In these cases, prevention is key--and I am always advocating for my library to offer classes on how to spot scams. Therefore, I came up with a brief lesson plan instructing senior citizens how to spot these evil emails from "banks", and what to do about it. The writing of the lesson plan was easy enough, though I struggled with the activity portion. My first instinct was to do a really fun interactive activity with many steps and bright colors and la, la, etc. But then I had to reel myself back. These are older folks, and usually they do not prefer all of the rigmarole that I wanted to include. Moreover, they are usually overwhelmed when learning about technology (which I've learned from experience) so a complicated activity can become overstimulating very quickly. Therefore I offered a simple "identify" activity where they must choose, based on what they learned, which emails they think are fake out of an offered four. Moreover, I offer the lesson in the form of a presentation for similar reasons as above--older folks don't usually want to move around (like an active learning method) in order to learn something that can be hard and frustrating, and sometimes a presentation really does do the trick when trying to impart important and thick information. I do think lesson plans are a great way to culminate what you've learned--as teaching is the best way to cement it in your own brain! I look forward to implementing this lesson plan for real sometime in the future :). 

Please enjoy my lesson plan! 

Lesson Title

How To Spot A Robber: Teaching Senior Citizens How To Identify Scam Emails Claiming To Be Banks. 

Audience

Senior citizens - those 60 years and older! 

Learning Outcomes

1. By the end of this session, participants will be able to identify common red flags in scam emails that claim to be from banks, and how to respond appropriately. 

2. Participants will be able to identify (1) a fake email address, and they will be able to recite (2) what a bank will never ask them to do over email, (3) how to confirm whether or not it is the bank, and (4) what to do with the scam email. 

Activity

Introduction (5 minutes)

Ask introductory questions:

• "Has anyone here ever received a suspicious email from a bank?"

• “What made it suspicious to you?”

• "What did you do?"

Offer a brief overview:

• Scammers often pretend to be banks to steal personal or financial infomation.

• Today we’ll learn how to spot these fake emails and protect ourselves!
  
  

Presentation: How Scam Emails Work (5 minutes)
Offer visual aids such as examples of scam emails. Specifically, obvious ones versus ones that are harder to spot. 

Cover key points such as: 

• Scammers pretend to be legitimate banks, and will sometimes even have the bank logo in the emails. 

• They use fear or urgency (e.g., "Your account will be closed!") to get you to act quickly.

• Their goal is to get your passwords, card numbers, or personal details.

• They will never ask for passwords, personal information, or permissions over email. 

Go over the key red flags:

• Poor grammar or spelling.

• Suspicious or misspelled email addresses (e.g., bankofarnerica.com).

• Urgent or threatening language.

• Unexpected attachments or links.

• Requests for personal info (banks never ask this by email!).
  
  

Activity: Real or Scam? (10 minutes)

Instructions

• Hand out 4 printed sample emails (2 legitimate, 2 scams).

• Ask participants to independently identify which ones are scams, and write down why on the provided paper.

Review as a group

• Go through each email as a class and explain what makes it real or fake.
  
  

What to Do If You Get a Scam Email Discussion (5 minutes)

Go over key responses

• Don’t click on links or open attachments.

• Don’t reply.

• Do report it to your bank (provide their official fraud contact info).

• Delete the email.

• You may report it to the authorities, but that is optional. 

If you are still unsure, to confirm whether or not the email is from your bank

• Either call the bank via their number on their website, or on a past bank bill and confirm with them whether or not they sent the email. 

• The email can sit as well, and wait for you to physically go to a bank branch if that is easier for you.
  

Recap and Questions (5 minutes)

Ask the group

• “What is one red flag you’ll look for from now on?”

• “What would you do if you received a suspicious email?”

Answer questions

Recap Tips with a Simple Handout:

The handout will include

• List of red flags.

• What to do if you suspect a scam.

• How to double-check if it is a scam. 

• Bank fraud hotline/contact.

Assessment: Exit Slip

Instructions: Please complete the questions below. You can circle answers or write short responses. There are no trick questions—this is just to help you remember what you’ve learned.

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Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following is a common sign of a scam email?
A. The email is short and polite
B. It comes from your usual bank email address
C. It asks you to confirm personal or financial information
D. It includes your account number and full name

2. What should you do if you think you’ve received a scam email from your bank?
A. Click the link to see what it says
B. Reply and ask if it’s real
C. Delete it and report it to your bank
D. Forward it to a friend for advice

3. True or False:
Your bank may email you asking for your password to confirm your identity.

Short Answer

4. List two red flags that might tell you an email is a scam:

5. If you receive an email that looks suspicious, what is one safe action you can take?

Bonus Question!

6. Imagine you receive an email from "YourBank123@gmail.com" saying your account will be locked unless you click a link. What should you do?