Scratch Code Example: Simple Phishing Detector for High School

📚 Quick Study Guide

• 🌐 Understand what Phishing is: A type of online fraud where someone pretends to be a trustworthy entity to trick you into giving them your personal information, like passwords or credit card details.
• 🔍 Recognize common Phishing tactics: Look out for suspicious email addresses, urgent requests, grammar mistakes, and links that don't match the website they're supposed to lead to.
• 🛡️ Check URL structure: Legitimate websites have clear and consistent URL structures. Phishing sites often use long, confusing URLs or subdomains that mimic real websites.
• 💡 Utilize Scratch for Detection: Use conditional statements (if/else) in Scratch to check for keywords in a given URL or email subject line.
• 📝 Basic Scratch Blocks: Familiarize yourself with blocks like 'ask', 'answer', 'if-else', 'contains', and string manipulation blocks.
• ⚠️ Report Suspicious Activity: Always report suspected phishing attempts to the relevant authorities or the organization being impersonated.
• 🧑‍🏫 Implement a scoring system: Assign points based on the presence of phishing indicators. If the total score exceeds a threshold, flag the URL as suspicious.

Practice Quiz

1. What is the primary goal of a phishing attack?
   1. A. To improve website security.
   2. B. To steal personal information.
   3. C. To deliver malware.
   4. D. To test network vulnerabilities.


2. Which of the following is a common sign of a phishing email?
   1. A. Formal greetings and proper grammar.
   2. B. Requests for immediate action and threats if not followed.
   3. C. A clear and concise explanation of the email's purpose.
   4. D. Inclusion of multiple contact methods.


3. In Scratch, which block would you use to ask the user to enter a URL?
   1. A. `say`
   2. B. `ask`
   3. C. `think`
   4. D. `report`


4. Which Scratch block can be used to check if a URL contains a specific word?
   1. A. `join`
   2. B. `length of`
   3. C. `letter of`
   4. D. `contains`


5. What is a typical characteristic of a phishing URL?
   1. A. It is short and easy to remember.
   2. B. It uses HTTPS with a valid certificate.
   3. C. It contains misspellings or unusual domain names.
   4. D. It matches the official website's URL exactly.


6. Why is it important to use an 'if-else' block in a Scratch phishing detector?
   1. A. To create a loop.
   2. B. To perform different actions based on whether a condition is true or false.
   3. C. To define a variable.
   4. D. To display text on the screen.


7. What should you do if your Scratch program identifies a URL as potentially phishing?
   1. A. Click the link to investigate.
   2. B. Share the link with your friends.
   3. C. Report the suspicious URL and avoid clicking on it.
   4. D. Ignore the warning and continue browsing.