Afterword

Tess's notebook ends where every school year ends, with a last page and a summer ahead. Her friend Marcus is still waiting to learn whether any of his money will come back, and he is managing, slowly, with a budget, extra shifts and people around him. Tess never lost money, but she came close enough to know that being careful once is not the same as being safe for ever. That is why her year is worth reading: not because she always got it right, but because she kept checking.

Investment scams change their costumes all the time. Next year there will be new apps, new words and new faces in new advertisements. What does not change is the shape underneath: a claim that cannot be checked from the outside, a promise without risk, a reason to hurry, a reason to keep quiet, and finally a request for money or for something that leads to money. A person who knows that shape, and who has a habit of checking through sources of their own choosing, does not need to know every new trick.

The fables in this book were written for that reason. A young squirrel counting her nuts twice, a duck offered ten ducklings for one egg, a mouse in front of a painted store, a rabbit visited by a second fox: these pictures are simple enough for a younger brother or sister and true enough for a grandparent. If one of them stays with you, tell it to someone. A story that is passed on protects more than one person.

And if you remember only one thing, let it be the line Tess wrote inside the cover of her notebook in the last week of the year: "Ask first, go and look yourself, and never check alone."

Tess's Notes on Checking, in One Place

Use a source you choose yourself. To check a claim, never use the link, phone number, email address, reference number or person that comes with the claim. Find the website of a firm, a bank or an official office yourself, by searching for its name or using an address you already know, and use the contact details listed there.

Ask the three questions. Who says so? How can I check it myself? Who gains if I believe it? When the only people saying that something will grow are the people who gain if you believe them, the third question answers itself.

Look for the firm on the official register. In many places, firms and advisers that offer investments or investment advice must be allowed to do so by the official office that supervises them, and that office keeps a public register. Check the exact name, and check that the contact details on the register are the ones you are using. A copied name or a picture of a licence is not proof. Look at the warning list too, but remember that a name missing from a warning list is not a sign of safety.

Remember what is not proof. A screenshot of a profit, a crowd of cheering members, a beautiful life in pictures, a polished app, a balance that keeps rising, a small first withdrawal, a famous face in a video, a page that looks like a news site, a caller who knows your name: none of these show that a firm is real or that your money exists.

Treat certain words and requests as warning signs. "Guaranteed", "no risk", "only today", "only ten places left", "keep this between us", a reward for bringing in friends, a fee you must pay before you can take out your own money, a fee to get lost money back, and a request for copies of your documents from someone you have not checked.

Give yourself time. Make no money decision on the day it is asked for. A real opportunity will still be there tomorrow; a countdown that starts again was never a real deadline.

Never invest through someone you know only online, and never check alone. Talk to someone you trust before you send money or documents. If something has already gone wrong, stop paying, tell your bank on the number printed on your card, keep every message and receipt, and report it to the police and to the official offices in your country.

For Families and Teachers

This book can be read by a student alone, but it works best when it is shared. Some families read one chapter a week and talk about it at dinner or on a weekly call. Some teachers use one chapter as the start of a lesson on money and online life. However you use it, a few simple rules help. Nobody has to share their own money or their own mistakes. Questions are always welcome and never laughed at. And the goal is not to win an argument about who is careful enough, but to make it easy for anyone to say, "Can I check something with you?"

Young people are often online in places that older family members do not see, and older family members are often targeted in ways that young people do not notice. Each side has something to teach the other. A grandparent may know how to read a contract slowly; a teenager may know how easily a picture can be changed. A family that checks together is harder to deceive than any one of its members alone.

One Question for Each Chapter

Chapter 1: Who in your life could you ask, without feeling embarrassed, "Is this real?"

Chapter 2: What can a screenshot prove, and what can it never prove?

Chapter 3: When someone teaches others how to get rich, how might they really be earning their money?

Chapter 4: Why does the word "guaranteed" deserve extra checking when it is used about investments?

Chapter 5: Why might someone who does not want to be checked try to take away your time?

Chapter 6: What is the difference between a number on a screen and money you can use?

Chapter 7: How can you help a family member check something without making them feel foolish?

Chapter 8: If someone you love told you they had been deceived, what would you want your first words to be?

Chapter 9: Where does the money come from when a club pays you for bringing in new members?

Chapter 10: Why is it wise never to invest through someone you know only online, however kind they seem?

Chapter 11: If you cannot trust a face or a voice in a video, what can you trust instead?

Chapter 12: Why are people who have already lost money often contacted again, and how can they check who is really offering help?

Chapter 13: Before you send copies of your documents to anyone, what would you check first?

Chapter 14: What would you write on the inside cover of your own notebook?

Where to Turn for Help

If you think that you, or someone in your family, may be caught in an investment scam, the first step is to stop sending money, even if you are told that one more payment will set everything right. Then contact your bank, using a number you already have from the bank itself, such as the number printed on your card. In some cases a bank may be able to help if it is told quickly, but the rules differ from place to place and nobody can promise that money will come back.

Report what happened to the police and to the official offices in your country, such as the office that supervises banks and investment firms and the office that takes reports of fraud. Find their contact details yourself, on their own websites. Keep every message, screen, receipt and bank record together, with dates, and do not delete apps or chats before everything is saved. Be very careful with anyone who contacts you afterwards offering to get your money back for a fee. Real official offices, the police and banks do not ask for a fee to help you.

Students can also turn to their school's or university's advice and support services, and everyone can turn to a person they trust. A loss can weigh heavily on sleep, eating, studies and peace of mind. If it does, talking to a doctor or another qualified professional is a sensible step. If you ever feel that you might hurt yourself, please contact a helpline or a medical facility right away. If you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency number.

About the Information in This Book

Whether and how anyone should invest depends on their own situation and on the rules where they live; for that, an independent, qualified adviser who is on the official register is the right person to ask.

Laws, rules and the names of official offices are different in different countries. The official offices in your country can tell you what applies to you.

All the people in this book are imagined, and so are their groups, offers, apps and platforms. No real company, product, person or event is described, and any resemblance to real ones is not intended.