Schools across England are being offered anti-fraud lessons aimed at helping children recognise fraud and protect themselves from financial and sexual exploitation, the Home Office announced on 4 November 2026. The materials cover pupils aged 10 to 18 and their parents, including how criminals recruit teenagers as so-called money mules by promising easy cash for moving funds through their bank accounts. The department said victims can face prosecution and blocked accounts, and later difficulties securing student loans, employment or housing.

The announcement cited 22,000 reported money-muling incidents in 2025, with one in 5 involving someone under 21. It said fraud now accounts for 47% of all surveyed crime in England and Wales and that more than 1 in 20 people aged 16 to 24 become victims. Police and safeguarding teams are also receiving more reports of financially motivated sexual extortion, or sextortion, which the department linked to criminal groups based outside the UK.

The government-funded lessons were designed by South West Regional Organised Crime Unit officers with the PSHE Association. They sit outside the statutory curriculum and are offered alongside the RSHE curriculum published earlier this year, delivering a commitment in the Fraud Strategy, which is backed by £250 million and a new Online Crime Centre. The Children's Society said the resources give young people information they had asked for and reassurance that exploitation is never their fault.