Lion Cipher Lab
Spot and stop everyday scams
- Foundations
- Beginner
- ~25 min
- Free · no account required
Why it matters
Scams are the most common crime most people will ever face, and they are engineered, not accidental — a scammer's whole job is to rush you past your own judgement. The trick that fools a retiree out of their savings and the trick that breaches a company both run on the same lever: social engineering, which means manipulating a person (rather than hacking a computer) into handing over money, information, or access. Learn the handful of patterns every scam reuses and you can spot one in seconds, whoever it is aimed at. This is also the one security skill you can pass directly to the people you…
What you'll learn
- recognising scam calls, texts, and messages
- understanding social engineering and caller-ID spoofing
- verifying who is really contacting you, independently
- refusing unsafe payments (gift cards, crypto, wire, verification codes)
- reporting fraud to the FTC and the FBI's IC3
- protecting less-technical family members
Steps in this lab
- The one instinct that stops almost every scam: slow down
- Scam phone calls: impersonation and the spoofed number
- Scam texts (smishing): the link you should never tap
- Fake tech support: the pop-up and the call that wants your computer
- Romance and investment scams: the slow con and the fake fortune
- The universal red flags — and the lines you never cross
- Verify independently, report it, and protect your family
- Why this small habit is real security