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.