A Growing Threat to the Community
“Wait! Is this a scam?!” It’s a question that sends shivers down the spine, but it’s one we hear all the time–when working with colleagues, learners, and even family members!
That moment is happening more and more. Americans now lose over $10 billion a year to fraud, according to the FTC, and those impacts hit hardest for the communities many of us serve—older adults, young people, and folks still building digital skills.
So we at IDIA asked, "What would it look like to teach scam awareness in a way that actually sticks?"
New Approaches to Harm Reduction
That question led us to build Spot the Scammer (free on iPadOS and iOS).
In the app, users create a character and play detective—spotting scams across texts, emails, social media, and more. As they identify real-world scenarios, their character levels up and unlocks new digital swag. It’s playful, but grounded in the exact patterns we see every day.
This was a true collaboration between learning designers, educators, software engineers, and Digital Navigators—and we use it everywhere: workshops, our Hives, and out in our Mobile Hives at community events.
A Solution for Every Community!
What we’ve found is simple: when learning is interactive, story-driven, and framed through a challenge, people of all ages—kids, adults, seniors—engage more deeply and build real confidence.
If you’re thinking about how to make digital safety education more effective (and more fun), We’d love for you to download Spot the Scammer for free to give it a try—and consider how game-based design might shape your own work!
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