eSMART MATTERS

Earlier this week I was reminded of the importance of being vigilant about scammers. One of our VCE students showed me an email, which they had thankfully recognised as suspicious, that purported to be from our previous Principal. The email was offering a “very lucrative opportunity” to this student. On closer inspection, while the display name of the email address had a recognisable name that held meaning to the recipient, the email address itself was just jumbled characters, thus raising the student’s suspicions.

As part of our curriculum here at Belgrave Heights Christian School, working in partnership with families, we regularly try to educate our students about protecting themselves in online environments. As part of this partnership, we encourage you to take some time to chat with your children this week about their online activities and ask them if they know what to look out for to protect themselves online.

Depending on the age of your children, this may include online video games, social media or email, but it is not limited to these specific examples. For further information about online scams I invite you to have a look at the following websites:

https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-topics/staying-safe/online-scams

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/email-scams

https://www.cyber.gov.au/learn-basics/explore-basics/recognise-and-report-scams