# Phishing Game for the Classroom: Spot the Scam, Played Live Source: https://decka.dev/classroom/computer-science/phishing-game Ten realistic messages arrive on every phone: a parcel fee, a bank alert, a school IT notice, a job offer, a buyer, a code. Each student works through the same ten messages twice, at their own pace. Then the screen stamps the truth on each and shows where the tells were. ## What it teaches Students set what they did with ten realistic messages beside what they said of the same messages the second time through, find which messages got past the room and where those scams' tells were, and see that suspicion has a cost too when a genuine alert is called a scam. They leave with one habit that works when you can't always tell by looking: check through a channel you choose. ## A phishing game built from one ordinary Tuesday Every phone gets the same ten messages, written for the lesson and realistic in every detail: a text about a parcel's unpaid fee, a bank's text and an email in its name, two notes from a school's IT desk, a job offer, a reply to a listing, a verification code, a voicemail from an officer and a subscription's renewal. Every brand, sender, address and link is fictional and printed as plain text that nobody can tap, and every phone number is in the reserved 555-01 range. Each student works through the ten on their own phone, at their own pace, the same ten messages twice, and can change any answer until the step closes. While they work, the projector shows only who each message is from and how many have answered it, never a word of a message and never what anyone answered. Then the screen stamps the truth on the room's calls, message by message, and ranks the messages the most of us got wrong, where a genuine message called a scam counts as wrong too. Next, every person's answers on the six scams are counted card by card: what each did with a message the first time through, set against what they said of it the second, in one grid with a headline whose words the room's own counts decide. Where a scam got past the room, it is then drawn large, and a pen inks its tells, such as a lookalike address, a deadline or a link to the wrong domain, beside what the room says it checks first. Counts only: the projector never names or places a person, and each phone sees only its own ten, checked against the truth at the end. Scams are made to work on careful people, so the lesson ends on a habit, not a score. Try the screen-and-phone preview: the phone is yours, and fictional classmates answer through the same runtime as the lesson. ## Classroom debrief Did you handle any message differently the second time through? What changed? If a scam got past some of us even the second time through, where was its tell, and why didn't we look there? Did the room call a genuine message a scam? What would that have cost you in real life? If any scam got past us, compare what we said we check first with where its tells were. What do you notice? If you can't always tell by looking, what is the one habit that works anyway? ## Phishing game questions, answered ### Are the messages real? No. Every brand, sender, number, address and link is fictional and written for this lesson, and each is printed as plain text, never a link anyone can tap. Phone numbers stay in the reserved 555-01 range, and every message carries the lesson's notice not to contact any number or address shown. ### What does the projector show while students answer? Only who each message is from, how it came, and how many have answered it. The messages' words stay on the phones, and nobody's answers are shown while the room is still answering. ### Is anyone's result shown to the class? No. The screen shows counts only and never names or places a person. At the end each phone shows its own ten, each against the truth, and no one else's. ### Some of my students have been scammed. Is it safe to run? Scams are made to work on careful people, and the lesson says so. The debrief is about the messages and where their tells were, never about who was fooled, and nobody's answers reach anyone else's phone. ### Can I change the messages? Yes. Every message's words are settings, and so are the notes beside its tells. A tell marks a span of its message's own words, so an edit that removes the words a tell marks is refused, never inked in the wrong place. ### How long does it take? You move each step on when the room is ready, and no step runs on a timer. Students work through the messages at their own pace, so give the room time before you press Next. ## Run the lesson Present the boards in PowerPoint and Decka. Students scan a QR code or open the session link to join from their phone browsers.