Ready Kids › On Your Own, Out There › Badge 3 › Lesson 3.3
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Somebody wanting your account
Refuse anybody who wants to put money through your account or wants your login, and know why it is your name on the line.
1Watch
Keep twenty
Keep twenty
Two kids on the top deck of a bus. An older friend of a friend leans over the seat: you've got a bank account, yeah? Someone owes me, can they send it to yours and you send it on to me. Keep twenty for the hassle. The film ends on the younger kid's face.
24 secondsIt sounds like a favour. Watch how small he makes it sound.
2The idea
It is your name on it
When money goes through your account, the person the bank sees is you. The person the police see is you. Not the person who asked, whose name is nowhere. They picked you for exactly that reason. Somebody your age with a clean account and no idea what this is worth more to them than the twenty.
Most of the time the money came from somebody who was scammed, and passing it on is a crime with a name, even if you did not know. Banks close the account. Some people cannot open another one for years. That is what the twenty actually costs, and the person asking knows it.
3The idea
The three shapes it takes, and the one line
1. Bank. Can somebody send money to your account and you pass it on. Keep some.
2. Game login. Send me your login, I’ll rank you up. Your card is attached to that account, so this is money too.
3. The favour. My account’s frozen, can my mate send it to you and you send it to me.
The rule has no exceptions for people you know, because it is always people you know who ask. The line is short, about you, and gives them nobody to argue with: Can’t. My mum can see my account. It works whether or not it is true. It works better if it is, so ask her tonight.
4Look
What the bank sees
A bank statement
A bank statement with a kid's name at the top. One line in: two hundred from a name nobody knows. One line out the same day: one hundred and eighty to another.
That is the entire story as anybody will ever read it. Your name, money in, money out. Nothing about a bus.
5The idea
Watch it work once
The bus. He says his account is frozen, it is just a favour, keep twenty. That is the most common version there is, and it works because it sounds like his problem. Can’t, my mum can see my account. He says, it’s twenty dollars, don’t be tight. Same line, same shrug. Can’t. He moves on to somebody else.
What you did not do: ask what the money was for. The reason does not matter, it could even be true, and asking just gets you a better story. The rule is: nobody uses your account, nobody gets your login. Tonight, one sentence to a parent about the bus. That is Tell tonight, and it is not grassing.
6Decide
He says it's just a favour. His account's frozen.
Pick one to carry on.
7Build it
Three requests
Three requests
Three chat threads arrive one message at a time: a mate's older brother wanting to route money through your bank account, a player offering to rank up your game account if you send the login, a friend whose account is frozen asking you to receive a transfer for them. At each one you pick your reply, and the thread reveals what happened next to the account.
The game account one feels different because it is not money. It is. Your card is attached to it.
8Find them
Which of these is somebody asking for your account?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Say it
The refusal
Say it like it is not your decision
“Can't. My mum can see my account.”
It is short, it is about you, and it gives them nobody to argue with. It works even if it is not quite true. It works better if it is.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Say your refusal out loud to a parent, and have them push back twice the way a mate would: it's twenty dollars, don't be tight. Same line, same tone, both times. Then ask them whether they can actually see your account. Some can.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
If money goes through your account, it is your name on it. Nobody uses your account. Nobody gets your login.
Take the Badge ChallengeBadge 3 · Money and Strangers
3.1Job scams and easy money3.2Meeting somebody from online3.3Somebody wanting your account★Badge Challenge