10 WAYS TO
be Smart Online

Series Editor: Andy Boon

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Lesley Ito

CREATIVE EDUCATION10 WAYS TOPOCKET READERS
10 WAYS TO - Series Overview

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The 10 WAYS TO series provides advice, skills, andstrategies to the readers for successfully negotiating
different aspects of life. Each book suggests 10 clear,
useful ways to the reader. The reader is encouraged
to critically reflect on the reading material and theirown lives in order to make any changes that would
benefit them.The series includes the following.
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•
••
•
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10 ways to achieve work-life balance
10 ways to be more productive
10 ways to manage money
10 ways to be successful in love
10 ways to be assertive
10 ways to be smart online
10 ways to be environmentally friendly
10 ways to be healthy
10 ways to work in a team
10 ways to organize a trip

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More titles will appear in the series at a later date.

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be Smart Online

10 WAYS TO
be Smart Online.... 4

1. Don’t choose a weak password.... 6SO A
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3. Don’t believe phishing scams...10

4. Watch out if your friends get hacked... 12

5. Don’t become online friends with people you
don’t know... 14

6. Be a smart online shopper... 16

7. Don’t believe fake news... 188. Protect your computer and the informationon it... 209. Don’t give out your private information... 22

10. Watch what you post on social media... 24D

2. Don’t believe spam emails

Summary... 26

Reflection Questions... 28Vocabulary in Context... 29Vocabulary List... 363

10 WAYS TOIntroduction

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The Internet has changed our lives inso many ways. Before the Internet,
we could only buy things by going tostores. We usually only talked to people who lived near us. We used thetelephone to talk to people far away.
We read the morning newspaper to
get the news.

DNow, we can go online using oursmartphones and computers. We canbuy things online. We can chat to people from all over the world. We canread the news online. We can do thesethings at any time of the day. Going
online is great!
However, there is also a lot of danger
online. Some people may want to4

be Smart Online

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scam us. They want to steal our information. They want to steal our money.
Hackers may try to give our computer a virus. They may get access to ouremail or social media. Some people
post fake or incorrect news to try tospread wrong information. We haveto be careful. We have to protect ourselves. We have to be smart to stay safe
online.

DNow, stop and think for a moment.
Do you worry about your information
online? Do you worry about shopping
online or visiting websites? Do youworry about becoming friends withpeople on social media? Do you worry
about reading and sharing fake news
articles? Let’s look at ten ways thatyou can be safer online:510 WAYS TO

1. Don’t choose a weak password

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A weak password is one that is easy forhackers to guess. If hackers guess yourpassword, they can access your email
or social media account. They cansteal your information. The weakest
passwords are: 123456, 12345678, Password,
qwerty, letmein, hello, iloveyou, and welcome.

DThe strongest passwords use UPPER
CASE LETTERS, lower case letters,numbers, and other characters (Forexample – “#, $, or %”). They are also
long. So, choose a strong password.
Don’t use numbers from your birthday, address, or telephone number. It
is also a good idea to use the first letters of each word in a sentence insteadof a word. For example: !TaTwTbSo10! is a6

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strong password. It uses the first letterof each word in this sentence: There
are ten ways to be safe online. Someletters are upper case. Some letters
are lower case. There are numbers.
The numbers are not from a birthday,address, or telephone number. There
are special characters at the beginningand end of the password - two exclamation points! This is a password thatcan keep you safe from hackers.

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2. Don’t believe spam emails

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Spam emails are sent to many people
at one time. In the email, the writerdoes not greet you by name. Maybe,
they try to sell you something. Or,maybe, they say they want to give you
lots and lots of money.

DIt’s easy to know when you get a spamemail. First, a spam email is fromsomeone that you do not know. Then,look for spelling mistakes. Spam emails
often have many words that aren’t
spelled correctly. Finally, spam emails
say things that are too good to be true.
For example, why would someone you
don’t know want to send you lots andlots of money? Why would someone
you have never met want to do business with you?

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How can you protect yourself fromspam emails? Don’t click on any
links in the email. Don’t open any
attachments in the email. Clicking onthese links or opening these attachments may give your computer a virus. The best way to protect yourselffrom a spam mail is just to delete it.

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Reflection Questions

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1. Can you remember the 10 ways to besafe online? Test yourself. If you forget
any, go back, and read them again.

2. Do you do any of the 10 ways to be safe
online in your life? If so, which ones doyou do?

3. How could you use any of the 10 ways
to be safe online in your life?

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4. What do you think you will do differently in your life after reading thisbook?

5. Can you think of other ways to be safe
online?

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Vocabulary in Context

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1. Scam• Some people may want to scam us. They wantto steal our information.
• I was told I won some money, but it wasn’ttrue. It was a scam.
• Scammers tell you something that isn’t true,
so they can take your money.
2. Steal• Scammers want to steal our information.
They want to take it without asking.
• The girl wants to take the clothes from thestore without paying. She wants to steal theclothes.
• He took the woman’s bag and ran away. Hestole the bag.

D3. Hackers• Hackers may try to give our computer a virus.
• I think my computer has a virus. I think itwas hacked.
• The boy tried to get into the company’s
computer system. He didn’t have a password,
so he hacked into the system.

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Vocabulary List(Verb and Noun) Telling a lie to try to steal information or money; a scheme where a person is tolda lie to try to steal their information or money. Ascammer (Noun) is a person who tries to scamothers.

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Scam:(Verb) to take something that is not yours.

Hacker(s):(Noun) a person who tries to get into a person’s
computer remotely by stealing the password or
breaking into the security system. Hack (Verb) is
the action of breaking into a computer.

Access:(Noun & Verb) the ability to enter a place; theaction of entering a place.

Fake:(Adjective) not real; not true.

Protect:(Verb) to keep something safe. Protection (noun)
is a thing that protects something.

Articles:(Noun) a piece of writing in a newspaper, magazine, or online news source.

Weak:(Adjective) not strong.

Guess:(Verb) to say what you think the answer is, even if
you don’t know.

Spam:(Noun) bad or junk emails that are sent to many
people at one time.

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