So, I went to this zoo what a rip off! The only animal it had was one dog it was a shiz tzu
it's a joke shiz tzu is a type of dog and shit zoo.
Today we're going to look at the words "rip-off”, “scam”,, “con”, "con man" and other
vocabulary and useful expressions to talk about cheating and deception.
So if you've ever been cheated then stay tuned.....
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk
The first word is rip-off So the word rip-off means to pay far too much
for something. It's a noun (a rip-off). And also a verb: to rip off. or to rip somebody off. So if something
is much too expensive and the quality is poor you would say I was ripped off or it was a rip-off
And I WAS ripped off recently. I was in Venice
we had been walking all day and we reached the Piazza San Marco and
We decided to take a drink. I knew it would be expensive – I'm from London
and I live in Paris. So I know what expensive means. However when we got the bill
It was quite a shock. It was 18 euros for one bottle of beer
18€ for one Campari 36€ in total plus an obligatory 4€ tip so that's 40€
Quite a shock so we thought we were really ripped off.
So be careful if you're in Venice
Now, generally speaking a rip-off is not illegal
it just means paying much too much for something. The next word "scam" IS illegal. We use this to
talk about people illegally trying to get your money It's a verb "to scam" and a noun "a scam".
And the person who does it is "a scammer"
So there is old story of a scammer who used
to read the obituary columns in the An obituary is the notice of a death of somebody in the
newspaper. He found the addresses for the people who had died recently and then sent a bill for an
umbrella. Now, when the family who received the bill
assumed he had ordered it before he (or she) died and, because it was just a small amount
they paid it without question. An apparently this was a very successful scam
And the scammer got very rich because of it
Unfortunately one day he got caught. How did he get caught? He sent a bill
to the address of somebody who had been in bed for the last 20 years and had no need for an umbrella
The family got suspicious
They called the police and he ended up in jail.
Maybe you've received an email from someone
saying something like “My uncle died leaving me 100,000,000 dollars which I need to to
get out the country. I'll give you 10% in you help me". Let me tell you something.
It's a scam. Or this game when you have 3 cards and you have to to find the queen.
People play it on the street It's a scam. You cannot
win and yet there are still people who play it.
The next word is con which is a verb and a noun.
"to con" and "a con"
The word con comes from the word confidence. A con is a type of scam but here Someone brings
you into the their confidence they are very convincing and you trust them and then when
you believe what they say they con you. a conman (or con woman) is the person who does
it. If they're really good you might call them a con artist.
The most famous con artist of all time is Victor Lustig who in 1925 managed to sell
the Eiffel tower. He sold it to a group of greedy scrap metal dealers
(a scrap metal dealer by the way is somebody who buys old metal and the resells it at a profit
Anyway he managed to convince them that the Eiffel Tower was being taken down.
Anyway it was a great con he made a lot of money.
and he did many other remarkable cons in his career
But, as you would expect, in the end he got caught and
he ended up in prison.
And recently I've heard that's been happening
on the streets of Paris recently
It's the story of a man who he wears a beautiful Italian suit and he stops women on the street
and tells them tat he's lost his wallet but he's urgently got to get back to Nice for a job interview.
and if only they could lend him the money.
As soon as he gets to Nice he'll send it back to them. Of course it's a con, they never get there money back.
If you've been ripped off or scammed or conned
tell your story in the comments and if you're a scammer well then don't do it. Find something
more useful to do with your life. Thank you for watching more English language
videos coming soon.