Teaching Players How to Detect Fraud Using Video Games

Figure 1: A depiction of an Alux created using ZBrush (c) Erika Olimpiew

Video games are a distinct type of media from traditional forms, such as movies, books, and theater. Role-playing games allow the player to experience a more visual, direct, and interactive experience within a virtual world populated with imaginary characters and scenery. Newer modes of gaming that use augmented and virtual reality can immerse us in this imaginary world even more completely, akin to Star Trek’s Holodeck experience.

The avatar we control acts as a substitute for us, performing actions on our behalf to eliminate a monster or achieve a goal. We imagine the enemy walking towards the avatar is a sentient being out to get us, and we react by making the avatar run away, or fight the enemy with its in-game weapons. Our sense of space and time is also impacted, as we temporarily suspend our awareness of the real world, letting hours pass as we project ourselves into the imaginary reality’s space-time illusion.

During gameplay, we also take on the identity of our avatar, which is often configured to express our own preferences for hairstyle, skin color, outfits, and accessories. We project our own sense of self onto “technology as the other,” and this relationship shapes our perceptions and emotions. We celebrate with the avatar when it accomplishes a goal, finds a rare item, or defeats an enemy. We get frustrated when the avatar can’t achieve our in-game goals, get an adrenaline rush when it is in a virtual battle with the enemy, and feel the anticipation of discovering an unknown treasure in a treasure chest.

Playing a video game also serves as a distraction from real-world problems and anxiety by temporarily giving us control over an entertaining virtual world designed to satisfy our basic needs for competence, self-expression, and relatedness. The feelings of competence we feel when learning and achieving goals in a video game are further magnified by leaderboards and competition among players. We can express our intent by how we play with others, by acting out the “work” to achieve a goal, such as gathering resources or defeating an enemy, or by competing with them to get ahead. Our basic needs for relatedness can be satisfied this way [1].

Unlike interactions with people in the real world, interactions with other players in video games are simplified and prescribed, lacking the deep context and subtlety of real-world interactions. Thus, social interactions in video games are not a substitute for real-life interactions with other humans. Relying solely on video games to interact with others can exacerbate a distorted sense of reality in some vulnerable groups of people, especially those who don’t have sufficient real-life interactions to begin with. This perceptual gap can further impair interactions with other humans, and lead to addiction and further isolation from society.

This limited context can also be used to hide the true intentions of an avatar and make it more difficult to distinguish between those avatars that are there to have fun playing the game as intended, from those who are seeking to take advantage of another player.

Roblox, a popular video game platform for 17 and under users has implemented safety tools such chat filters and rephrasing, to detect and correct inappropriate communication that violates its community standards. For example, their community standards prohibit users from sharing personal information, such as email addresses, passwords, home addresses and other sensitive credentials, and has restrictions on directing users off platform using direct links. Further, there are prohibitions against fraud, and on the use of off-platform services or products to sell on-platform items [2][3]. However, even with these safety tools and prohibitions in place, it’s still possible for some users to circumvent these checks, such as with payout scams and fake game passes [4].

Thus, it’s important for Roblox players to learn how to identify “red flags” or behavior that can signal potential fraud, and how to handle these situations.  Since this is most relevant to those players who actually play Roblox games, the best medium to teach players is within a Roblox game experience.

The “Alux Jungle Mystery” is a Roblox experience that I’m designing for the purpose of teaching Roblox players how to identify these red flags. The experience features an Alux, a character based on the Mayan humanoid spirit that protects its owner but can sometimes turn on its owner in mischievous ways. In this game, the player adopts an Alux in a Mayan jungle, to help them solve a mystery of a lost treasure. The Alux provides help to the player in the form of hints, but can sometimes turn into a mischievous creature who sabotages the player’s efforts to reach the in-game goals. The Alux sometimes tricks the player with false information. If the player falls for the Alux’s tricks, it will unleash natural forces (wind, rain) and dangerous creatures (jaguar, python, army ants) on the player’s path. The player must learn how to distinguish the good information from the bad, by using their skills, or failing and learning in the process.

This game is currently in development. If you have questions about it, or are interested in learning more about it, please fill out the contact form.

References

]

[1] S. Parkin, “How Video Games Satisfy Basic Human Needs,” Nautil.us, Jan. 04, 2017. https://nautil.us/how-video-games-satisfy-basic-human-needs-236347 (accessed May 22, 2026).

[2] “Roblox Community Standards | Roblox,” Roblox, 2026. https://about.roblox.com/community-standards (accessed May 22, 2026).

[3] “Safety Tools and Policies | Roblox,” Roblox, 2025. https://about.roblox.com/safety-tools (accessed May 22, 2026)

[4] Callon, “Every Roblox Scam That Still Works Explained in 5 Minutes,” YouTube, Mar. 28, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmabRRP06oI (accessed May 22, 2026).