5 Resources to Celebrate National Consumer Protection Week
This week reminds us of the importance of equipping our students with the strategies and tools they need to protect themselves. Here are five of my favorite resources to do just that with your students:
#1 INTERACTIVE (Game): Shady Sam
Welcome your students to their first day of work at Shady Sam's, where their job is to make as much money as possible off the backs of hard-working Americans. How? By issuing loans that make a hefty profit.
#2 FULL LESSON: Identity Theft
Identify different...
Question of the Day (Update): What is the fastest growing scam reported to the FTC? a) Tax scams b) Romance scams c) Gift card scams?
Answer: Romance scams
Questions:
Why do you think romance scams are so successful and growing so quickly?
Do you know anyone who has fallen for a romance scam?
What are steps that you can take to prevent falling prey to a romance scam?
Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.
Behind the numbers (FTC):
They say love hurts. With romance scams that’s doubly true – hearts are broken and wallets are...
Reading List for December 11-13
Personal Finance
Three interesting surveys hit the media this week:
CNBC looks at the Junior Achievement Teens and Economic Opportunity Survey.
JD Power has been running monthly surveys on Consumer Financial Health, and Financial Brand looks at how some banks are responding to customer needs for information and guidance.
PRNewsWire looks at a Lending Tree survey that suggests 31% of people would rather go into debt than borrow money from a relative.
We discuss combining finances in...
Question of the Day (Updated): How much more does a TV cost from a Rent-To-Own retailer than upfront in cash?
We have all heard of rent-to-own stores and how you can purchase a large TV for only a small monthly payment! I did some digging to find out how much it would cost to rent-to-own a brand new 65in HDTV. Here is what I found:
Answer: $1,000.10 more to rent-to-own
(After 21 monthly payments of $86.63 I would pay $1,000.10 more than the original cash price of $799)
View more rent-to-own merchandise at rentacenter.com
How do rent-to-own stores work? (finder.com)
Rent-to-own stores are a way to get...
What's New With Financial Pitfalls 2020
Scams and Fraud
This episode of NPR’s Planet Money discusses the “price of a hack” by relating what happened when an employee of a company fell for a “phishing” email. The costs to a company, especially one that deals with confidential financial information, can be huge! The solution turns out to be an age-old, low tech one: insurance! Cyber Insurance to be exact.
In any crisis, scammers jump on the opportunity to prey on peoples’...
EdPuzzle Thursday: Scams
EdPuzzle is a great platform to test for knowledge while students watch a video and learn remotely. We will be releasing new EdPuzzle videos here on the blog each week so that your students can answer questions that are directly embedded within engaging videos.
This week we have two EdPuzzle videos both focusing on scams.
The first EdPuzzle video titled "How to Spot Scams" discusses the characteristics of common types of scams.
In the second EdPuzzle video titled...
Reading List for August 7-9
Personal Finance
This one got some press: The Cincinnati Bengals reports that top draft pick, Joe Burrow, plans to live off of his endorsement income (not too shabby), and bank (invest?) his $23.9 million signing bonus as well as his $36.2 million four-year contract. (BengalsWire)
But for 59% of young Americans, Millennials and Gen Z, the pandemic has totally derailed their financial lives. (USA Today)
Economics in the times of Covid
The July unemployment rate dropped to...
Question of the Day: Can you name at least 5 of the 10 most common passwords people use?
Answer:
Questions:
What was most surprising to you about the list of the top 10 most common passwords?
What are some steps a person can take to make their passwords more secure?
Why do you think so many people use these passwords that are easy to hack?
Are there any passwords you currently use that you may need to change because they are too simple?
Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use with your students.
Behind the numbers (CNN):
If...
Reading List for April 3-5
Current times are impacting every aspect of our financial lives, so this week’s list is a bit longer than usual, allowing you to decide what is relevant in your world at the moment.
Economics/Federal Reserve: The view of what is going on and how the Federal Reserve is working to mitigate the economic hits from this crisis has been presented by regional Federal Reserve Presidents:
Neel Kashkari (Minneapolis) compares the 2008 response to this year’s stimulus bill in an Op-Ed piece...
Reading List for November 22-24
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Nov 22, 2019
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Advocacy, Financial Literacy, Paying for College, Career, Financial Scams, Investing, Retirement
Financial Literacy and Advocacy
ICYMI, Tim Ranzetta had two pieces hit Marketwatch this week. The first is an article explaining how excellent teachers will drive the financial literacy movement, and highlights several teachers you will recognize. The second is an opinion piece in which Tim quantifies the value of a high school personal finance class.
Study Breaks’ Daniel Reed concurs with the need to make Personal Finance a high school graduation requirement.
Workers consistently...
Video: Three Brain Games Videos Demonstrate Why We Fall for Scams
Here's a few Brain Games videos that I watched over the weekend that can help students uncover scams:
Pigeon Drop
Con Artist Handbook
The Scam Illusion
Questions
Have you ever fallen for a scam?
What techniques do these scam artists use in these videos to con people?
Which of the three scams do you think you would most likely have fallen for?
What lessons can you learn from these videos so that you are not conned?
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Create A Financial Scam...
Reading List for November 1-3
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Nov 01, 2019
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Entrepreneurship, Economics, Investing, Credit Cards, Paying for College, Retirement, Financial Scams
Entrepreneurship
An excellent retrospective on the contributions of Peter Drucker on what would have been his 100th birthday. (INC)
How does owning your own business or working in the gig economy impact how your kids will view the world of work and finances? (WAPO)
Economics
Economics news this week included another Federal Reserve Rate cut. What does that mean for your credit card, mortgage, etc.? (USA Today)
And the October Jobs report came out today. USA Today explains the...
QoD: The most common scams in the U.S. are _____________.
It's the Halloween season, so here are some tricks to watch out for when shopping online.
Answer: Online purchases
Learn more about online purchase scams from Marketplace: mp_20191028_seg_19_64 (1)
Here are the top product categories for online purchase fraud:
Questions:
Why do you think that pets are the product category that scams the most people?
What are warning signs that something could be a scam?
What are some tips to avoid becoming a victim?
Where are...
Reading List for October 18-20
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Oct 18, 2019
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Current Events, Financial Literacy, Cryptocurrencies, Student Loans, Financial Scams, Career, Budgeting, Taxes
Financial Wellness
Rather than focusing on life events, banks are now basing their products and marketing on everyday financial decisions, getting into the financial wellness business. (The Financial Brand)
Is your credit card debt making you sick? A detailed study by CarefulCents.com finds the answer if “yes.” (PRNewswire)
Economics/ Crypto-Currency
Here is an article from The Economist that discusses the demise of cash across the world’s economies. (For more detail...
Reading List for October 11-13
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Oct 11, 2019
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Behavioral Finance, Cryptocurrencies, Investing, Financial Scams, Career, Retirement
Behavioral Finance
An interesting dive into gender and money: The Myth of the Frivolous Female Spender (NYT)
FinTech
A longer read from Knowledge@Wharton discussing how FinTech may be helping the underbanked and unbanked. The risk is that many of these services fly under any regulatory radar.
Crypto-currencies
Mark Zuckerberg will face Congress to talk about Facebook’s proposed crypto-currency Libra. He will face a tough crowd, (Axios) and now several backers (Visa,...
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