Your personal fraud safety plan

The one idea

Every scam in this course works by making you decide under pressure. The counter is deciding NOW, while nothing is wrong. A personal fraud safety plan is five or six rules, written down, that your panicked future self can follow without thinking.

Compare a person with no plan:

Caller says money is leaving the account. Heart races. Every decision — trust the voice? read the code? — is being made for the first time, at speed, against a professional script.

versus a person with a plan:

Same call. "Rule 2: I hang up and call the number on my card." No decisions needed. The script meets a script — and yours is better.

Build the plan

Your plan should cover the five doors fraud comes through:

1. Calls: I hang up and call back on the saved or card number. Family emergencies need the code word.
2. Links: I never log in through a link. App, bookmark, or typed address only.
3. Codes: Nobody gets an OTP, PIN, or password. Not the bank, not support, not family on a strange number.
4. Approvals: I read every push message. I reject anything I did not initiate, then call the bank.
5. Installs: Nothing gets installed at the request of an incoming caller.

Add the numbers your panicked self will need: bank fraud line, network provider, and the person you will tell first.

Try it now

Write your five rules — your words, one line each — plus the three numbers. Put a copy where panic will find it: phone notes and one physical spot at home. Tell one family member where it is and agree the code word while you are at it.

Your win today

Your fraud decisions are already made. The moment of panic now has a script, numbers, and a code word waiting for it.