American Girl Scout creates a scam awareness game for seniors

A California teen created a new game to help teach seniors how to spot fake calls, phony texts and other scams before it’s too late.(iStock.com/Dobrila Vignjevic)

WOODLAND HILLS, California (KCAL, KCBS) -- A teenager from Woodland Hills, Calif., recalls how her grandparents nearly got scammed, and now the 16-year-old has turned that experience into a learning platform, specifically for seniors.

From fake calls to phony texts, with AI adding to the confusion, Girl Scout Annabelle Miller already understands how sophisticated scammers can be.

“This guy pretending to be my uncle, who was like I got in a car accident, I need this much money -- and my grandmother freaked out, and it was very real,” Miller said after her grandparents nearly fell for the scam.

Miller created a new game to help cut through the noise, teaching people how to spot fraud before it’s too late. “The main thing you want to look out for with a scam is urgency,” Miller explained at a recent presentation.

The teen created Scout the Scam and worked with the Motion Picture & Television Fund, where she volunteers, to refine and test the game, which anyone can play.

Miller leads workshops guiding seniors through real-life scenarios, so they can spot what’s real and what’s not. The Scout the Scam welcome page begins, “Find out the possibilities of AI, how to recognize and defend yourself from scams, and how to deny cookies. This game will do its best to prepare you to survive on the internet in the age of technology.”

A recent AARP survey found that nearly one in four adults, about 110 million people, have lost money to fraud or have had their personal information misused.

“We need to question everything. If someone is calling you saying that they are with your bank, and they need your bank account information, or for you to transfer money out, it’s 100 per cent a scam.” Amy Nofziger/AARP Senior Director of Fraud Victim Support, said.

“That’s not how banks operate. So my best advice is, always verify, and verify at the source.”

Miller hopes to bring her game to more communities, but her focus has always been simple and clear: “My ultimate goal is just to have people play it. If it helps one person, then that’s enough.”

Her project has earned her the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles gold award, an honour given to fewer than six per cent of scouts. She will officially receive the honour later this spring.