【2023.2.11】六分钟英语 诈骗陷阱 Falling for fraud
Introduction
Fraud - the criminal activity of getting money by deceiving people - is a big issue. Clever and complicated scams can trick us into handing over lots of cash. Sam and Rob discuss the methods criminals use, hear from some experts and teach some honest fraud-related vocabulary.
This week's question
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
c) £1.2bn
The answer is given at the end of the programme.
Vocabulary
fraud
the criminal activity of getting money by deceiving people
scam
illegal or dishonest way of making money by tricking someone
fall for (something)
believe (something), that is a trick or a lie, to be true
sleight of hand
use of clever skill to gain something dishonestly
rifle
search something in order to steal from it
phishing
tricking someone by email or online to get their personal data by pretending to be from your bank
sophisticated
clever and often complicated
Transcript
Note: This is not a word for word transcript
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, BBC Fraud investigator reporter
It's a sleight of hand fraud. The 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, social engineer
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
And 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. Bye!
Sam
Bye.
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双语版Transcript
Are you at risk from online fraud?
你是否面临网络诈骗的风险?
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.
哈喽，我是山姆，欢迎来到6分钟英语。在这六分钟的节目中，我们将讨论一个有趣的话题并教授一些相关的英语词汇。今天和我一起主持节目的是罗伯。
Rob: Hello. And today we're talking about fraud.
哈喽，我们今天要谈的是欺诈。
Sam: Fraud is the criminal activity of getting money by deceiving people - or tricking people by doing something dishonest.
诈骗是一种通过欺骗别人——或者通过不诚实的行为戏弄别人而获得金钱的犯罪行为。
Rob: There are many ways to do this - and much of it is happening online these days.
诈骗的方式多种多样——现如今多数以网络诈骗为主。
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?
我们稍后再展开细说。但是罗伯，请先很老实回答一个测试问题。根据英国金融——一个代表英国银行业的组织——的数据，去年犯罪分子通过欺诈骗了多少钱?是……a)120万英镑 b)1.2亿英镑,还是c)12亿英镑?
Rob: Well, I imagine it's quite a lot - so I'll say ￡120m.
嗯，我猜这个数字是巨大的——所以我觉得是1.2亿英镑。
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.
稍后我们再看你的回答是否正确。我刚才提到了欺诈这个词，它是一种通过欺骗别人来赚钱的非法方式。我们可能认为我们永远不会被骗，但已经有数百万人收到了虚假的电子邮件、电话或信件，并上当受骗。这些虚假的东西看起来是真实的，并要求我们提供或更新我们的财务细节。
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.
To fall for 指的是信以为真。例如，今年英国有成千上万的人收到了欺诈性的( 或虚假的)电子邮件，要求人们更新支付电视牌照的直接借记细节。在英国，这是我们必须支付的资金，这样BBC才能运转下去。
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...
这正是BBC第四频道节目《你和你的家庭成员》（You and Yours）中一只讨论的问题。下面是BBC欺诈调查员记者莎莉瓦尔对容易受骗的原因的解释......
Shari Vahl, BBC Fraud investigator reporter: It's a sleight of hand fraud. The 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.
这是一种戏法欺诈。诈骗者一边分散你的注意力，一边瞄着你的口袋。我这有封邮件，看起来完全合情合理。邮件上所有的徽标和字体都很正确。上面内容是我的电视牌照直接支付失败了，而我需要付这笔钱。语气很礼貌。
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.
这里有些表达很棒。她提到了这种欺诈是一种戏法欺诈，意思是使用聪明的方法不诚实地获取某物——此处指的是钱。
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!
正如莎莉所说，犯罪分子一边让你分散注意力，一边瞄着你的钱包。rifle指的是为了从某处偷盗而翻找——也就是翻你的钱包——非常狡诈！
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.
那么，就如这个例子，诈骗者们——行骗的人——通过网络钓鱼获取财务信息。这指的不是用鱼竿、鱼线和鱼钩钓鱼，而是通过发送一封看起来像是来自银行的邮件，要求获取机密信息。
Rob: But banks do warn us not to give away our financial details online and to change our passwords regularly.
但银行确实警告我们不要在网上泄露自己的财务信息，并定期更改密码。
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?
但是有时候罪犯的手法很高明，很容易得逞。《你和你的家庭成员》这一节目也采访了社会工程师珍妮·拉德克利夫。她怎么称呼这种类型的欺诈呢?
Jenny Radcliffe, social engineer: 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.
更精细的诈骗是经过深思熟虑的。这种欺诈是分层进行的，受骗者知道对方在索要自己的一些信息。你真正寻求的是一扇偷窥的窗户——一把只能揭开受骗者身份或个人信息一小部分的钥匙。完美的骗局以此为基础层层设局，直到给受骗者带来毁灭性的后果。
Rob: So Jenny Radcliffe is talking about sophisticated fraud. That means it's clever and often complicated - so it can confuse us.
珍妮·拉德克利夫所说的是更精细的诈骗。这种骗局手法高明并且通常比较复杂——所以能迷惑我们。
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.
是的，诈骗者只需要我们一点点信息——一把钥匙——最终完全暴露我们的身份和个人信息。
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.
正如珍妮所说，对于受害者来说，结果是很糟糕的。尤其是当某些受害者失去了所有血汗钱的时候——这是毁灭性的。
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?
当然，银行和安全公司正在努力打击犯罪，但这仍然是个问题，之前我问过你，罗伯。根据英国财政部的数据，去年犯罪分子通过诈骗偷了多少钱?
Rob: And I said b) ￡120m. That's a lot of money.
我说的是1.2亿英镑。这是一大笔钱。
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.
没错，但其实比这还多。2018年，诈骗犯通过欺诈成功骗走12亿英镑——而且这只是英国的数据——放眼全球，这一数字还会更巨大。
Rob: Well, it certainly is a serious issue but hopefully we haven't deceived you with the vocabulary we've discussed today.
当然，这是一个严重的问题，但希望我们今天讨论的词汇没有欺骗你。
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.
希望不是!我们一直在谈论欺骗——一种通过欺骗别人来获得金钱的犯罪行为——或者通过不诚实的行为来欺骗别人。
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.
我们接着还学了欺诈——一种通过欺骗别人来赚钱的非法或不诚实的方式。这样做的人都是诈骗者。
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.
我们谈到了动词短语fall for。当你对某事信以为真，意思是相信骗局或谎言是真实的。
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.
然后我们谈到了熟练手法（sleight of hand），意思是使用高超的手段不诚实地获取某物。还有rifle，意思是搜查某物以便从中偷窃。
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.
以ph开头的phishing指的是通过发邮件或在网上假装是银行窃取受骗者个人信息。最后，我们讲到了精细的诈骗。如果某物是精细的，表明其手法高超而复杂。
Rob: Unlike our programme, Sam!
不像我们的节目这样，山姆!
Sam: Let's hope so but now, we've reached the end of the programme.
希望如此吧。我们的节目就到这里。
Rob: See you again soon. Bye!
