Back to Online Safety Fundamentals
7-10digital-safety

What phishing is

Discover what phishing is and why it matters for your financial safety and decisions.

In this lesson

What phishing is is part of Online Safety Fundamentals. This preview shows how digital-safety connects to everyday family decisions such as earning, saving, spending choices, goals, approvals, or parent-guided money conversations inside Progress Penguin.

Today’s money mission

You get an email: "Your bank account is frozen — click here." It looks real. Is it?

How it works

Phishing = fake message tricks you into sharing info.

Try a real-life example

Real-life: Chioma clicks a "GTBank security alert" email link. The page looks identical to GTBank. She enters her PIN. It goes to a scammer. She lost ₦85,000 in 20 minutes.

Activity preview

Try the challenge

Use what you learned to complete this short challenge.

Quiz preview

Phishing means:

Real fishing when planning ahead
A type of bank when planning ahead
Fake messages to trick you into sharing details
A game over the longer term

You receive an SMS: 'GTBank Alert: Your account is suspended. Click now to restore: gtbank-secure-ng.com/restore'. What red flags are present?

None — GTBank sends these routinely
Suspicious link (not gtbank.com), urgency pressure, and unexpected account alert — classic phishing signals
Only the link is suspicious — message content is fine
The message is probably real — banks send these