This humorous vignette points out the necessity of taking care when we purchase something online. More and more we are making purchases online and avoiding the bricks and mortar stores. While this is proving to be an increasingly popular choice for people, there are cautions that need to be taken. As with any financial practice, there are safeguards and checks to be made, prior to any purchase, in order to ensure that we don’t wind up with something we don’t want – or worse – that we have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous people. So how do we safeguard ourselves as we shop online? There are certain things you can do.

This funny vignette stresses the importance of reading the fine print. Many times the “small print” is hard to read.  Warranties, contracts, policies, agreements and guarantees can be so long that it is human nature to skim over the text and sign without fully reading all the details. It is likely we have all done it. Think about it, if there is something that a seller wants to hide from you knowing, where would you put it? Often the information or exceptions that you really need to be aware of are placed at the end of the agreement. By that time, you are tired of reading and often agree without finishing reading all of the terms.  A buyer needs to be aware of his or her rights and have the confidence to stand up for them.

This humorous vignette reminds us of the need to carefully consider who we trust to give us valid guidance in investing our money. Most of us either don’t have the expertise or the time to manage our investments. As a result, as we begin to build an investment portfolio, we look for help. Some rely solely on family members or friends to guide them while others look for professional help. Regardless of the course you take, it is crucial to understand the background and experience of those offering the guidance and advice. It is important that we give our trust to those who deserve it and not simply rely on friendship or whim. After all, you have worked hard for that money and you want to make sure that it is well managed.

Underlying the humour of this vignette is a serious message about investing. We all would like to be able to put our money to work for us by investing it, but often we are so eager to get a good return on our investment that we overreach and take a chance on an apparent opportunity that offers a greater than normal return. This is a risky venture to say the least. It’s important to take a moment to reflect before acting. As the old adage says, “Act in haste, repent at leisure.” There are a number of things that should be considered when investing money in order to protect ourselves from scams.

Humour can be a great teaching tool. This vignette, although humorous in nature, carries a serious message and, hopefully, teaches us the importance of protecting our personal information. There is no humour in having your personal information stolen and then used by the person who stole it. Imagine – it’s just like having your wallet or purse stolen!!! With the great number of passwords and PINs that most people have these days it is possible to have some of this information stolen if we do not take care to ensure that it is safeguarded. How do we do this? The activities suggested below will give some answers but each of us has to make certain that we do not share or reveal this information to anyone but those we trust. Failure to do so could result in great difficulties and loss of money and personal identity.

Creating and managing strong, secure passwords is an essential part of life in the 21st century. How can we help our students to develop the skills to create and manage their own online accounts? In this resource, there are two sequential classroom activities that you can teach your students about password security (adjust the complexity of the task to suit your class). Activity 1: How secure is this password? Aim: To learn which password combinations are the hardest to guess or crack. Activity 2: Design the strongest passphrase Aim: To learn how to design a strong password that is easy to remember

This vignette humorously points out the need for us to be on alert for unscrupulous people who would take advantage of us at any opportunity. There is an old saying “if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is” which warns us to be suspicious of people or situations that offer a large benefit for very little in return. But scammers are becoming more sophisticated in developing ways to swindle people. We need to be vigilant in any dealings we have and look for ways in which the transaction could actually be a scam. The last thing we want is to be a victim of fraud.