A fake email and message

You spot a disguise by the rush

A fake message almost always wants now. A real school can wait until tomorrow. A real game does not hunt your password in chat. A real teacher does not send from a personal gmail “verify the account immediately”.

Rush is the first sign. Not the only one. But when you see it, you slow down. You put the phone down. You read on without clicking the button.

We will not build a fake email that could be copied. We will read signs. A sign is something you will see even if the message is a different length, a different colour, a different “almost like school”.

What to check without clicking the button:

• The sender — the name can say school, a game, “Microsoft”. The address next to the name matters more. A school address looks like an address you already know from Bakaláři, from a teacher, from the school site. A random gmail with the school name in the name is not school.
• Rush — “the account will be deleted”, “verify now”, “the police”, “the last 10 minutes”. Time pressure has one job: so you have no time to ask an adult.
• A secret — it wants a password, a PIN, an SMS code, a card number, “verification”. Real support does not want that in chat.
• Spelling — sentences that look as if someone wrote them in a rush and without school. It is not proof. It is another sign next to rush.
• The link — hover with the mouse (on a phone, press and hold) and read where it goes. The text can promise school. The target can be somewhere else. If you do not understand where it is heading, you do not click.

Three sign breakdowns, not templates

Read this as an eye exercise. Do not copy it anywhere. Do not send it to anyone “as a test”.

Breakdown A — rush. In the subject or the first sentence there is time: now, immediately, or we will cancel the account, few minutes left. A real school, when it needs something, writes a deadline you can manage by tomorrow, and you can check it on a known site. Rush + a password = stop.

Breakdown B — a weird sender. The name looks familiar. The address does not. Or an address you never see at school, in a game, at a carrier. You are not playing detective who “uncovers a fake domain”. You are playing comparison: does this look like what I already know? If not, you show an adult.

Breakdown C — a link that does not fit. The text says “open school mail”. After holding it you see an address that does not belong to school, or it is long and weird, or it promises sign-in somewhere else. You do not click. You do not try “where it really goes”. You close it. Screenshot. An adult.

If you do not see the signs and the message is from a teacher you recognise, you can still open school with a bookmark and read it there. A bookmark is your entrance. A button in a message is a stranger’s entrance.

What to do, step by step

1. Do not click the button, the attachment or “verify”. An attachment named like an invoice or a parcel from a stranger does not get opened. 关闭 it. Nothing will get angry.

2. Take a screenshot. Date, sender name, text. Do not delete yet. Do not block yet, if you can get the picture. Proof helps.

3. Show the message to a parent or a teacher. Even if “it is awkward”. At school hand it over as a screenshot, not as a clickable link to classmates. A forwarded link is still a trap.

Once an adult has seen it, then block and delete according to what they say. Deleting on its own does not stop the trap. Sometimes the message disappears and then you do not know what to show.

What to say

A classmate: “Click, it is from school.”

“First I will hold the sender and the link. If it is weird, I will show the teacher. You do not click either.”

A message: verify the account now, or it will be deleted.

“A real school will wait. I will open school with a bookmark. I will show this message to a parent.”

You to a parent:

“A message arrived. It rushes and wants a click or a password. Here is a screenshot. I did not open the attachment.”

If you opened the attachment, say that too. The sentence “I do not know if I clicked” is also fine.

A bookmark is your entrance

A button in a message is a stranger’s entrance. A bookmark, an address you know, a school app you open every day — that is yours. When a message says “sign in here”, you sign in elsewhere: where you always sign in. If there is no problem there, the message lied. If there is a problem there, you still deal with it with school and a parent, not through a stranger’s button.

On a phone, press and hold the link and read. If you do not understand, you do not click. Not understanding is the right answer. It is not shame. Shame would be trying “whether it goes through” by typing a password.

What not to do, even from kind curiosity

• 发送ing the message on “guess if it is fake”.
• Building a similar message for a classmate as practice.
• Typing a password to try.
• Opening an attachment in “just a peek” mode.

You train the eye on a real message and on signs. Not on a trap you build yourself.

Campaign: signs on a poster

The project 🏫 Campaign for the class gets content here. On the poster belong three lines, not a whole fake email:

1. It rushes and wants a password → I do not click.
2. I read the sender and the link, not the button.
3. Screenshot, a teacher, a parent.

No skull. No sample scam with a clickable link either. A classmate should know what to do.

Into 🏠 family rules: A message that rushes and wants a password we do not open with a button. We open a known page ourselves and show a parent.

Now you 💪

With a parent, open one old message you know is real (school, a club, after-school). Look at the sender. So the eye knows what normal looks like. Then you have something to compare when rush arrives.

1. Find one real message. Read the sender out loud. Remember what the school or club address looks like.

2. Say one rule: a bookmark, not a button in a message.

3. Write those three lines with signs into the campaign or onto paper with the rules. Without a copy of the scam.

What to take from this lesson

• A scam rushes. 学校 rarely does.
• Read the address and the link before you click. Type a password only on a page you opened.
• Do not open an attachment from a stranger.
• Screenshot, then an adult, then block.
• On a campaign belong signs and a method, not a practice fake email.

© 2026 Ing. Martin Polak / AlgoRhino · 内容使用条款