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Scammers

Scammers

Date: Sep 04 2009

Themes: Tech

Grammar: Zero Conditional

Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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The Internet has made life easier for many people—including scammers. They use email to try to trick gullible people into sending them money or revealing personal information like bank account numbers and email passwords.

With a good spam filter and a healthy amount of skepticism, most of us are able to avoid these scams. But an email from a stranger offering a chance to get rich quick can be pretty alluring. That’s why it’s important to remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Find out if Dale or Mason has ever been fooled by an email scam.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Dale

Dale

Mason

Mason

Dale:  You know what bugs me more than anything in this world?

Mason:  Um…bad drivers.

Dale:  Close. It’s scammers off the Internet, trying to get you off email, Craigslist, or on some type of thing.

Mason:  Mmm-hmm.

Dale:  But the secondary part is the people that also fall for it.

Mason:  Well that’s…You gotta wonder with the email scams, like how people end up falling for a lot of those.

Dale:  I don’t get it. I see it on the news, and people are willing to give up thousands and thousands of dollars. And they’re young people. I could understand the older generation not understanding how email works, but I’m seeing these 20, 30, 40 year old people falling for it, and I just don’t get it.

Mason:  I mean, all I can say is like, this is an art form that has been refined over a long time. You look at the Ponzi scheme method, which has been going on for years.

Dale:  Gosh. For me, it’s starting to scare me a little bit. I don’t know, how do I look at it where I can be safe? What is your advice?

Mason:  One, never be afraid to ask questions. If people can’t answer your questions then they’re probably trying to sucker for a sucker. And other than that, it’s just like, use your brain.

 

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Dale hates getting tons of spam email from people trying to scam him over the Internet. He can’t understand how anyone could fall for one of those scams. It’s surprising to him that some young people are fooled by the scams, since younger people are usually more Internet-savvy than older people.

Mason says that scammers have existed for a long time. They’ve had years to refine their schemes. Mason thinks that if you get an email offering a chance to get rich quick, you should ask a lot of questions. Only a sucker would give a stranger money or personal information without asking him plenty of questions first.

Have you ever fallen for a scam? What do you think is the best way to avoid Internet scams?

 

Comments

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sofree

sofree

China

I don't think I've ever fallen for a scam. I am always careful. I don't even ask questions to those email afford good money business, just think, why you? If it's so easy to get rich, there's no poor in the world.

 

Set a good firewall, a good spam filter, avoid virus or trojan, don't dream of getting rich in one night, then you'll be safe.

 

Btw, all the scams aim money, so they should give you some bank account number. You can go to the online service, input the account and any password. If you input wrong for 3 or 5 times, the account is locked for at least 24 hours, this way you can save more people. If you happen to be correct, congratulations! LOL

 

I am following the US serials "Leverage" these days, it's about fraud, in a good way, very interesting. And another UK serials "Hustle" is also fun.

08:17 AM Sep 04 2009 |

shad84

shad84

United States

this sucks for sure and hey FOLKS DONT give out your details to no one

06:38 AM Sep 04 2009 |

shad84

shad84

United States

well i got like 200 emails from ladies who claim to be in LOVE with me….poor me…oh my….and like hundreds more of those that claims to have millions stacked somewhere on a foreign bank

and the best scammer was OLga from Russia….she wrote me for like 2 years i guess and she GOT the TASTE of her own medicine…bwahahahahaaa 

06:36 AM Sep 04 2009 |

madina siraji

Tanzania, United Republic Of

Once they fooled me with precious box for the aim of keeping it in my country, when I asked more questions they stopped. They requested for the visa card unfortumately I had ‘nt! They use the internet badly.

06:36 AM Sep 04 2009 |

Darkromantic

United States

ohh yeahh indeed these kinda places just like this. you can be  scammed easly.. just watch out with that guys. have a good one!

05:05 AM Sep 04 2009 |

lililijiushiwo

China

If you heat water to 100 degrees,you maybe scalded by hot water.

04:58 AM Sep 04 2009 |

Dekler

Dekler

Kazakhstan

at this web also are scammers!

I received mainly mails to help somebody transfer money to foreign account.

be ready for these mails!

Our life is around scammers

04:04 AM Sep 04 2009 |

emmashow1280

China

when i get the sammers in my email. if i don;t know where it is from i would not open it and see. there are lots of scammers around us. and no pizza fall from the sky.ha

03:09 AM Sep 04 2009 |

dearpesar

dearpesar

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

i got several email told me i won one million dollar, just pay 200 dollar tax and that will be in my account…. but i did't get fool fortunatelyLaughing

02:40 AM Sep 04 2009 |

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