Online scams are a growing threat in India, impacting millions and causing substantial financial losses year over year. This white paper presents ShieldUp!, a novel mobile game prototype designed to inoculate users against common online scams by leveraging the principles of psychological inoculation theory. ShieldUp! exposes users to weakened versions of manipulation tactics frequently used by scammers, and teaches them to recognize and pre-emptively refute these techniques. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) with 3,000 participants in India was conducted to evaluate the game's efficacy in helping users better identify scams scenarios. Participants were assigned to one of three groups: the ShieldUp! group (play time: 15 min), a general scam awareness group (watching videos and reading tips for 10-15 min), and a control group (plays "Chrome Dino", an unrelated game, for 10 minutes). Scam discernment ability was measured using a newly developed Scam Discernment Ability Test (SDAT-10) before the intervention, immediately after, and at a 21-day follow-up. Results indicated that participants who played ShieldUp! showed a significant improvement in their ability to identify scams compared to both control groups, and this improvement was maintained at follow-up. Importantly, while both interventions initially led users to to show increased skepticism towards even genuine online offers (NOT Scam scenarios), this effect dissipated after 21 days, suggesting no long-term negative impact on user trust. This study demonstrates the potential of game-based inoculation as a scalable and effective scam prevention strategy, offering valuable insights for product design, policy interventions, and future research, including the need for longitudinal studies and cross-cultural adaptations.

翻译：在线诈骗在印度日益猖獗，每年影响数百万人并造成重大经济损失。本白皮书介绍ShieldUp!——一款基于心理免疫理论设计的新型手机游戏原型，旨在帮助用户对常见在线诈骗产生“免疫力”。该游戏让用户接触诈骗者常用的弱化版操纵策略，并教导他们识别并预先反驳这些技术。我们在印度开展了一项涉及3000名参与者的随机对照试验，以评估该游戏在帮助用户更好识别诈骗场景方面的有效性。参与者被随机分配至三组之一：ShieldUp!游戏组（游戏时长15分钟）、普通诈骗认知组（观看视频和阅读防骗贴士10-15分钟）以及对照组（游玩无关游戏“Chrome Dino”10分钟）。在干预前、干预后立即及21天随访期，采用新开发的诈骗识别能力测试（SDAT-10）测量参与者的诈骗辨别能力。结果表明，与两个对照组相比，游玩ShieldUp!的参与者在识别诈骗的能力上表现出显著提升，且这种提升在随访期得以保持。值得注意的是，虽然两种干预措施最初都导致用户对即使是真实的在线优惠（非诈骗场景）也表现出更多怀疑，但这种效应在21天后消失，表明对用户信任没有长期负面影响。本研究证明了基于游戏的免疫策略作为一种可扩展且有效的诈骗预防手段的潜力，为产品设计、政策干预和未来研究（包括纵向研究和跨文化适应需求）提供了重要见解。