Falling for fraud - 6 Minute English

Sam: Hello I’m Sam and welcome to 6

Minute English. This is the programme

where in just six minutes

we discuss an interesting topic and teach

some related English vocabulary. Joining

me to do this is Rob.

Rob: Hello. And today we’re talking about

fraud.

Sam: Fraud is the criminal activity of

getting money by deceiving people – or

tricking people by doing something

dishonest.

Rob: There are many ways to do this –

and much

of it is happening online these days.

Sam: We’ll talk more about this in a

moment.

But first, a very honest quiz question for

you to answer, Rob. According to UK Finance

– an organisation that represents the

British banking industry – how much

money did criminals steal through fraud

and scams last year? Was it….

a) £1.2m, b) £120m, or c) £1.2bn

Rob: Well, I imagine it’s quite a lot – so

I’ll say £120m.

Sam: We'll find out if you're right later in

the programme. Now, I just mentioned the

word 'scam', which is an illegal way of

making money by tricking someone. We

may think that we’ll never be scammed,

but already millions of

people have fallen for fake emails, phone

calls or letters that look genuine and ask

us to give or update our financial details.

Rob: To fall for means to believe

something that is a trick or a lie, to be

true. This year, for example, thousands of

people in the UK fell for a fraudulent – or

fake – email,

requesting that people update their direct

debit details for paying their TV licence.

That's a payment we have to make in the

UK to fund the BBC.

Sam: This is something the BBC Radio 4

programme, You and Yours, has been

discussing. Its BBC Fraud investigator

reporter, Shari Vahl, explained

why it was easy to be deceived…

Shari Vahl: It's a sleight of hand fraud.

Criminals get you to look over there whilst

they rifle your pockets and I have the

email here and it looks

completely convincing. All the right logos,

all the right fonts. It just says that my

direct debit on my TV licence has failed

and I need to pay it. It’s very polite.

Sam: So some great language there. She

said that this scam was a sleight of hand

fraud. 'Sleight of hand' means the use of

clever skill to gain something dishonestly

– in this case, money.

Rob: As Shari said, the criminals get you

to, metaphorically, look over there whilst

they rifle your pockets. 'Rifle' means

search something in order to steal

from it– so to steal from your pocket –

very dishonest!

Sam: Now, like in this case, fraudsters –

the people who commit fraud – gained

financial information by 'phishing'. That’s

not fishing using a rod, line and hook, but

by sending an email that looked like it

came from your bank, asking for

confidential information.

Rob: But banks do warn us not to give

away our financial details online and to

change our passwords regularly.

Sam: But sometimes criminals are very

clever in what they do and it’s easy to be

fooled. The You and Yours programme

also heard about this from social

engineer, Jenny Radcliffe. What does she

call this type of fraud?

Jenny Radcliffe: The more sophisticated

frauds are ones that have been thought

through very carefully.

And this has been thought through. It’s

a fraud that can be layered so you know

we're getting some information from you.

What you really look for is a window into

someone - a key that unlocks just a small

part of their identity or their personal data

and from that a good fraud will build and

build and build on it until the

consequences to some people

can be completely devastating.

Rob: So Jenny Radcliffe is talking about

'sophisticated' fraud. That means it’s

clever and often complicated – so it can

confuse us.

Sam: Yes, criminals need just a small

piece of information about us – a key –

that can eventually open up our identity

and expose our personal data.

Rob: And as Jenny says, for victims of

fraud the consequences – the outcome –

can be very bad. Especially if somebody

loses all their hard-earned savings – it

can devastating.

Sam: Of course banks and security

companies are working hard to beat the

criminals but it still remains a problem

and earlier I asked you, Rob. According to

UK Finance, how much money did

criminal steal through fraud and scams

last year?

Rob: I said b) £120m. That’s a lot of

money.

Sam: It is but it’s even more. In 2018,

criminals successfully stole £1.2 billion

through fraud and scams – and that’s just

in the UK – globally it’s even more.

Rob: Well, it certainly is a serious issue

but hopefully we haven’t deceived you

with the vocabulary we’ve discussed

today.

Sam: Hopefully not! We’ve been talking

about fraud – that’s the criminal activity

of getting money by deceiving people – or

tricking people by doing something

dishonest.

Rob: Next we had 'scam' - which is an

illegal or dishonest way of making money

by tricking someone. The people who do

it are 'scammers'.

Sam: We talked about the phrasal verb

'fall for'.

When you 'fall for' something you believe

something that is a trick or a lie, to be true.

Rob: Then we heard about 'sleight of hand'

which means use of clever skill to gain

something dishonestly. And 'rifle', which

means search something in order to steal

from it.

Sam: 'Phishing', spelt with a ph, means

tricking someone by email or online to get

their personal data by pretending to be

from your bank.

Finally, we discussed 'sophisticated'

fraud. When something is sophisticated,

it’s clever and often complicated.

Rob: Unlike our programme, Sam!

Sam: Let’s hope so but now, we’ve

reached the end of the programme.

Rob: See you again soon. Goodbye!

Sam: Bye.