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.

Learning About Money Doesn’t Have To Be Boring!
A series of short vignettes produced for CFEE by Just For Laughs Gags focusing on money and highlighting money challenges, along with supporting tips and teaching material and suggested classroom activities and lesson ideas.
- Mind Your Money (PIN and password security)
- Buying Online: Be Safe. Be Wise (identifying secure websites, public WIFI and password security)
- Do They Have the Right Stuff (Trusted Advice, Selecting Financial Advisors, Good Money Decisions)
- If It Sounds Too Good To Be True (suspicious offers, risk/reward, credible investment sources)
-Catch It If You Can - In the Small Print (contracts, documents, verbal agreements, protect yourself)
- Why Pay More? (credit card offers, payments and interest charges, statement information, credit score)
- Need it, Want it, It's Your Call (need vs want, spending choices, compulsive buying, influences on buying)
- Take The Time (spending decisions, pressures to spend, comparison shopping, budget your money, return policies)
- Get the Credit You Deserve (credit score, paying off debt, credit rating accuracy, importance of a credit score)
- Scam Alert! (scams, fraud, personal information, protect your identity)

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.

This listening guide and assignment will help you understand key points about financial fraud and how to protect yourself, based on the video "Financial Basics: Video Fraud." Before You Watch:Ask the students to think about what you already know about financial fraud.Have they ever come across a suspicious email, phone call, or online offer?

"Identity Theft" is the thrilling true story of Michelle Brown who accrues over $50,000 of debt after her identity is stolen. We fill out forms all the time-for credit cards, loans, insurance claims, job applications, online purchases and more. We're constantly giving up personal and financial information, and sometimes those details get into the wrong hands. It couldn't happen to you? Think again-Michelle Brown walked into an office one afternoon to fill out a simple rental form and handled it over to the receptionist. Students can follow along the movie with a listening guide, some discussion questions, multiple choice and final reflection questions on this story. 

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.

Students will review documents with sensive information and evaluate the information that must be protected, why this is important and what docuemnts should be kept and which can be shredded (and not just thrown out). Provide students several documents that may contain sensitive information. Their goal is to analyze each document to uncover: What sensitive information is contained in this document? Why should I be careful with this document?  What precautions should be taken with disposing of these documents? 

Fraud is ongoing and with new technology, there is new sophisiticated fraud happening all the time: Deep fakes, Crypto job fraud, etransfer multi-factor verification fraud... everyday there is something new. Teachers can introduce this section and discuss ways to protect themselves from fraud. The assignment allows students to review fraud stories that have taken place and investigate their own fraud. Students could present their findings in a variety of ways: posters around the school, presentation, show to the class, social media video, etc. 

Investigate methods for handling and storing personal and financial information securely.

Teacher Guide included.

3-5 hours