A message pops up in your child’s game chat offering free Robux. A stranger on Snapchat promises £200 for “borrowing” their bank account for a day. A voice note sounds exactly like a cousin in trouble. Children in the UK and Ireland face scams like these every week. Most look nothing like the dodgy emails adults learned to ignore.
This guide shows you how to protect kids from online scams using the latest UK and Irish data. It explains which scams target children at each age and the warning signs to watch for. It also covers the device settings that stop most attacks, and what to do if your child has already been caught out. A reporting table covers all four UK nations and Ireland.
Table of Contents
Why Children and Teens Are Targeted by Scammers
Children are online early, trusting by nature and often more confident than they are careful. Scammers know this gap well, and recent research from Ofcom shows how wide it is.
Ofcom’s Children and Parents: Media Use, and Attitudes report, published in May 2026, tested 8- to 17-year-olds with a fake Instagram profile. Around six in ten (61%) spotted it. Worryingly, 31% said they were confident judging what was real online but still failed to identify the fake. Only half of 8- to 9-year-olds recognised it, compared with 69% of 13 to 15-year-olds.
Scammers exploit exactly this gap. Children also tend to keep quiet when things go wrong. Ofcom’s separate Children’s Online Experiences report found that only 15% of 11 to 17-year-olds told an adult after seeing harmful content online.
Teenagers aren’t safer just because they’re older. They face higher-stakes scams, such as money muling and sextortion, with consequences that can follow them into adulthood. Learning to protect kids from online scams means adjusting your approach as they grow, not relaxing it.
The Most Common Online Scams Targeting Children
Most scams aimed at young people fall into five groups. Each one uses a different emotional lever, whether that’s excitement, fear, embarrassment, or the promise of easy money.
Free In-Game Currency and Gaming Account Scams
Gaming is where many younger children first meet a scammer. The bait is almost always something free: Robux, V-Bucks, rare skins or a limited item. The child is sent to a website through a TikTok bio, YouTube comment, or Discord server. The site asks them to “log in to claim”.
That page is a copy of the real login screen. Once your child types their username, password, and sometimes a verification code, the scammer takes the account. They then strip out any items, use saved payment cards, or sell the account on. Other scams ask the child to scan a QR code or “verify” through a bot, which hands over a live session.
Our guide to keeping your teen safe in online chat explains how strangers move children from public game lobbies into private messages. The simple rule for any child is this: no genuine game gives away currency through an outside website.
Money Mule Recruitment on Social Media
A money mule is someone who lets criminals move stolen money through their bank account. Teenagers are recruited through Snapchat stories, TikTok posts, Instagram DMs and Telegram groups offering “quick cash” or a “job” moving funds.
The scale is growing fast. Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention service, recorded more than 22,000 money muling incidents in 2025 in its Fraudscape 2026 report. Nearly 13,000 more were filed in the first half of 2026 alone, a 70% rise. Cifas also cites Barclays research finding that 35% of Gen Z would transfer money to a stranger for a fee.
Young children are affected too. The Financial Conduct Authority’s September 2026 review found firms closed 238,396 suspected mule accounts in 2025. Of these, 1,343 belonged to children under 16. In Ireland, the banking sector’s FraudSMART initiative reports that children as young as 14 have become involved. It also found almost €9.4 million passed through mule accounts in the year to June 2025.
The consequences are serious. Money muling is money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in both the UK and Ireland. Banks usually close the account and can file a fraud marker with Cifas. These markers last six years and can make it very hard to open a new bank account or get a phone contract.
Cifas chief executive Mike Haley has warned that moving money for someone else “might sound harmless, but this is money laundering”. Our parents’ guide to child internet safety shows how tighter privacy settings cut the number of these offers reaching your teen.
AI Voice Cloning and “Friend in Trouble” Messages
Criminals can now copy a voice using short clips taken from public videos. For families, the risk runs in two directions, and both involve children.
First, a child’s own public videos can be used to clone their voice. Scammers then call a grandparent or parent with a tearful “it’s me, I’m in trouble” message. Starling Bank research from 2024 found that 28% of UK adults believed a voice cloning scam had targeted them in the past year. Nearly half had never heard of this type of scam.
Second, children can be the target. A voice that sounds like Mum or Dad might ask them for a login code, a password or to leave school with someone. Younger children are especially likely to do what a familiar voice asks. Keeping teen accounts private and limiting public videos reduces the audio scammers can collect.
Sextortion and Blackmail Scams
Sextortion is the scam with the highest emotional stakes. Gangs pose as a young person, persuade a teenager to share an intimate image, then demand payment, often in gift cards, to keep it private. The National Crime Agency says these demands often arrive within an hour of first contact.
Many boys don’t recognise the approach until it’s too late. NCA research for its 2025 awareness campaign found that 74% of boys didn’t see a request for nude images as a warning sign. About the same proportion (73%) didn’t know how to report it.
That’s why the scam angle matters. Your teen should know that a sudden request for images, followed by a demand for money, follows a known script. Paying rarely ends it. Our page on cyber blackmail help sets out exactly what to do next.
Fake Giveaways, Shops and Freebies
Fake influencer giveaways ask children to pay “postage” for a free prize. Copycat shops sell trending trainers, energy drinks or gaming kit at impossible prices, then never deliver and keep the card details.
When scam adverts sit alongside genuine ones, even careful teens get caught. Teach children to check independent reviews and to pay only through official app stores or known retailers.
Scam Risks by Age: What to Look Out For
Scams change as children grow. The table below shows the main risks at each stage and the one step that does most to protect kids from online scams.
| Age group | Main platforms | Common scams | What the scammer relies on | Most useful step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 to 10 | Roblox, Minecraft, YouTube Kids | Free currency, fake prizes, pop-up downloads | Excitement and trust | Purchase approval on every device |
| 11 to 14 | TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, Fortnite | Account theft, fake giveaways, impersonation | Fear of missing out, wanting to fit in | 2FA on all accounts and private profiles |
| 15 to 18 | Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, online shops | Money muling, sextortion, shopping scams | Wanting money and independence, embarrassment | Open talk about muling and a no-blame reporting rule |
Warning Signs Your Child May Be Being Scammed
Children rarely announce that they’ve been scammed. The signs usually show up in behaviour or bank statements first.
Watch for sudden secrecy with a phone or console, such as turning the screen away or leaving the room for messages. Panic or distress when notifications arrive is another red flag, especially late at night. Look out for unexpected purchases on your bank statement, new gift card receipts, or requests to borrow your card.
Other signs include a gaming account your child suddenly can’t access, or rare items that vanish from their inventory. Parcels you didn’t order, new trainers, or cash that doesn’t add up can point to money muling.
None of these prove a scam on their own. Together, they’re a reason to ask calmly and listen, because early questions protect kids from online scams before losses grow. Our guide to recognising online predators covers the grooming behaviours that often come before sextortion.
How to Protect Kids from Online Scams: Practical Steps
The most effective way to protect kids from online scams combines device settings with honest conversation. Settings block most attacks automatically, while conversation handles the ones that slip through.
Lock Down Payments on Phones and Consoles
Start with money, because blocking payments is the fastest way to protect kids from online scams. Every major device lets you require a parent’s approval before anything is bought. Our walkthrough on setting up parental controls covers Apple, Android, and each console step by step.
Settings stop spending, but scammers go after the details behind it. Teach your child two hard rules. First, nobody genuine ever asks to be paid in gift cards, because scammers prefer money that can’t be traced or reversed. Second, the numbers on a bank card, including the three digits on the back, are never shared in a chat or game, no matter who asks.
Secure Accounts with 2FA and Passkeys
Two-factor authentication (2FA) stops most account theft, even when a password is stolen. Scammers know this, which is why so many gaming scams ask for the verification code as well as the password. Teach your child that a code is a key, and nobody else ever needs it.
Text message codes are the weakest form of 2FA. Criminals can take over a phone number through SIM swap fraud, and Cifas recorded a 38% rise in unauthorised SIM swaps during 2025. Where a platform offers passkeys, set them up on your child’s device instead, as there’s no password or code to hand over. Give each child a personal email for gaming and social accounts, never their school email, and keep the recovery details yourself.
Agree to a Family Safe Phrase
A safe phrase is a word or short sentence only your family knows. It’s the simplest defence against voice clones, and it works best when children know exactly when to use it.
Agree it face to face, never by text, and share it with grandparents too. Then set clear rules. If anyone calls claiming to be family and asks for money, codes or passwords, your child asks for the phrase. If someone they don’t know says they’re collecting them from school or a club, the phrase applies there as well. No phrase means no.
Teach the STOP Check
Children need a simple rule they can remember under pressure. The STOP check works for any age:
- Slow down: scammers create urgency, so a genuine offer will still be there in ten minutes.
- Think twice: ask whether anything free, easy or secret really makes sense.
- Open another channel: check with a parent, or contact the person or company through a route you already trust.
- Protect your details: never share passwords, codes, bank details or images with whoever is asking.
Practise it with real examples. Show younger children a fake Robux site and ask what looks wrong. With teenagers, talk through a money mule post and discuss who really benefits. The netiquette rules for kids make a useful companion for younger children learning safe habits.
What to Do If Your Child Has Been Scammed
If your child tells you they’ve been scammed, how you react in the first few minutes matters most. A calm response keeps them talking, and you need every detail to limit the damage.
Stay Calm: What to Say First
Scammers rely on shame. Many deliberately tell children they’ll be in serious trouble if they tell an adult, because silence buys the scammer more time. Your first job is to undo that message.
Try something like: “I’m glad you told me. Scammers do this to adults every day, and they’re very good at it. The quicker we act, the better our chances of getting things back.” Then ask what happened in their own order, without interrupting. Save any questions about how it happened for later, once accounts are secure.
Speed matters. Banks can sometimes stop payments reported quickly, and stolen accounts are easier to reclaim before the recovery email changes. That calm response is part of how you protect kids from online scams, long before the first message arrives.
Contain the Damage in the First Hour
First, call your bank on the number on the back of the card. In the UK, you can also dial 159 to reach most major banks. Ask them to freeze any affected card and stop pending payments.
Next, change the password on the email account linked to the compromised account, then the account itself. Sign out of all other sessions and turn on 2FA. Take screenshots of chats, usernames, payment details, and timestamps before blocking anyone, because evidence can disappear quickly.
If the scam involves classmates or a school email address, let the school’s designated safeguarding lead know. For sextortion, don’t pay and don’t delete the conversation. Report it straight away using the routes below.
Where to Report in the UK and Ireland
Reporting helps police spot patterns, shut down accounts and protect kids from online scams in other families too. This table covers the scam and fraud routes, so use the one that matches where you live and what happened.
| Where you are | What happened | Where to report |
|---|---|---|
| Anywhere in the UK or Ireland | Money sent or card details shared | Your bank first; in the UK you can also call 159 |
| England, Wales, Northern Ireland | Any scam or fraud | Report Fraud online or on 0300 123 2040 |
| Scotland | Any scam or fraud | Police Scotland on 101 |
| Anywhere in the UK | Scam text or email | Forward texts to 7726, emails to report@phishing.gov.uk |
| Ireland | Scam, fraud or money muling | Your local Garda station |
| UK or Ireland | Sexual blackmail of a child | CEOP (UK) or An Garda Síochána (Ireland), plus the steps in our cyber blackmail guide |
| Anywhere | Scam account, advert or message | The platform’s own reporting tool |
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Report Fraud is the national service for reporting scams. Reports made by a parent on a child’s behalf still help the police build a picture of who is targeting young people.
New Scam Rules in the UK and Ireland
Regulators in both countries are finally targeting scams directly. The changes help, but neither stops a stranger messaging your child today.
In the UK, the Online Safety Act 2023 already requires platforms to remove illegal content, including fraud. The next step is scam adverts. Ofcom published draft Fraudulent Advertising Codes of Practice in July 2026, proposing nearly 40 measures such as verifying financial advertisers. The consultation closes on 2 October 2026, and the codes will apply only to the largest platforms.
In Ireland, ComReg’s SMS Sender ID Registry changed how scam texts look. Since 3 July 2025, texts from unregistered business sender names arrive labelled “Likely Scam”. Teach your child that this label is a warning. They shouldn’t tap links or call numbers in those texts. Ordinary texts from mobile numbers aren’t covered, so “friend in trouble” messages still get through. That’s why the steps to protect kids from online scams set out above still matter.
Three Things to Do This Week
You don’t need to fix everything at once. Families who protect kids from online scams well tend to start small and repeat often.
This week, agree on your safe phrase with everyone, including grandparents. Switch on purchase notifications for every card linked to a device your child uses. Then show your child one real scam, such as a fake Robux page or a money mule post, and ask them to spot what’s wrong.
Has your child come across a scam we haven’t covered? Tell us in the comments below. Your experience helps other parents spot the next trick before it reaches their children.
Frequently Asked Questions
Parents ask us the same questions again and again. Here are clear answers on how to protect kids from online scams.
At what age should I start talking to my child about online scams?
Start when your child first has access to money online, whether that’s gift card credit, in-game currency, or a linked bank card. For most families, that’s around age 7 or 8. Begin with one idea: nothing online is really free. Add money muling and sextortion by the early teens.
Can a teenager become a money mule without realising it?
Yes. Criminals disguise muling as a job, a favour, or a competition, so many teens don’t see it as a crime. CIFAS research found a fifth of people don’t believe muling is illegal. Not knowing isn’t a defence, and a fraud marker can last six years.
What should I do first if my child has paid a scammer?
Call your bank straight away using the number on the card, or dial 159 in the UK. Then change passwords on the linked email and account, and screenshot every message before blocking the scammer.
How do scammers steal Roblox and Fortnite accounts?
Mostly through fake “free currency” pages that copy the real login screen, and bots or QR codes that capture a live session. Reused passwords from data breaches are another route. 2FA and an authenticator app stop most of these attacks.
Do new laws protect kids from scams?
Partly. UK platforms must remove illegal fraud content, but rules on scam adverts are still being finalised. Ireland now labels many scam texts “Likely Scam”. Your own controls and conversations remain the main way to protect kids from online scams.