New since you last practised
- Calls with new voices: the practice calls now speak with our own voices, trained only on freely licensed recordings. In Spanish and Bulgarian, the calls now have sound for the first time.
- Now in Spanish too: Practice makes safe is now also available in Spanish — written for Spain, with its own examples and amounts in euros. The Spanish emergency plan also lists the numbers and places to report for Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and the Dominican Republic, and for anyone living in Germany. You can switch language at the top of the page.
- Now in Bulgarian too: Practice makes safe is now also available in Bulgarian — with Bulgaria's emergency numbers and places to report, its own examples and amounts in euros. Anyone living in Germany will find the German numbers in the Bulgarian emergency plan as well. You can switch language at the top of the page.
- The essentials in ten minutes: short on time? The new page sums up in six rules what matters day to day — in plain English, with a short try-out for each rule. Plus a little game: is it a web page, or a message from your computer? And a card to print.
- Outside the UK? The emergency plan now lists emergency numbers and where to report for Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The emergency card in An emergency drill is filled in for the UK — elsewhere, write in your own numbers.
Your course through the pond
Two paths, each station about ten minutes. Start wherever you like — your progress is kept only in this browser.
Spotting traps
Pop-ups, texts, calls, addresses, emails and online shops: work through the tricks calmly.
Being prepared
What protects you if something does slip through: passwords, a second key, family agreements, devices — and an emergency drill.
Carp tip: The more a message rushes you, the more it pays to check calmly.
How does a computer actually work?
To many people it seems like magic. It isn’t: “No magic” shows step by step how it works — hands-on and without a test. Along the way, some traps lose their power to scare: a sender is only text, and a virus warning in the browser is only painted on the screen.
Current warnings
You don’t need to follow every warning: scams change, the levers behind them don’t — and those are what you practise here.
These sites regularly report the scams going round right now — with real company names and examples:
- Which? scam news — the consumer organisation’s latest scam warnings
- Report Fraud news — warnings from the police’s fraud reporting service for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Links checked 3 October 2026.
Why practising works
Spelling mistakes hardly give scam messages (“phishing”) away any more, but their levers, such as time pressure or fear, still do — and those who practise spot them better than those who only read warnings.
Carp learn it too
Anglers call it “hook-shy”: a carp that has once been caught bites more cautiously. In 2020, researchers showed that carp also learn this caution just by watching, though it doesn’t last as long. So you don’t have to get hooked to learn — and refreshing helps. (Lovén Wallerius et al., 2020)
Already clicked?
It happens to careful people too — scammers are professionals. What matters now is acting quickly and in the right order.
Practise together
The exercises work well side by side: with parents or grandparents at the kitchen table, or on a projector in a class. A special class mode shows everything larger and keeps no progress on the device.
All companies, people, addresses and numbers in the exercises are invented. Any resemblance to real companies or people would be purely coincidental and unintended.