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.

====================================================================

雙語版Transcript

Are you at risk from online fraud?

你是否面臨網(wǎng)絡(luò)詐騙的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)?

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.

哈嘍，我是山姆，歡迎來到6分鐘英語。在這六分鐘的節(jié)目中，我們將討論一個(gè)有趣的話題并教授一些相關(guān)的英語詞匯。今天和我一起主持節(jié)目的是羅伯。

Rob: Hello. And today we're talking about fraud.

哈嘍，我們今天要談的是欺詐。

Sam: Fraud is the criminal activity of getting money by deceiving people - or tricking people by doing something dishonest.

詐騙是一種通過欺騙別人——或者通過不誠(chéng)實(shí)的行為戲弄?jiǎng)e人而獲得金錢的犯罪行為。

Rob: There are many ways to do this - and much of it is happening online these days.

詐騙的方式多種多樣——現(xiàn)如今多數(shù)以網(wǎng)絡(luò)詐騙為主。

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?

我們稍后再展開細(xì)說。但是羅伯，請(qǐng)先很老實(shí)回答一個(gè)測(cè)試問題。根據(jù)英國(guó)金融——一個(gè)代表英國(guó)銀行業(yè)的組織——的數(shù)據(jù)，去年犯罪分子通過欺詐騙了多少錢?是……a)120萬英鎊 b)1.2億英鎊,還是c)12億英鎊?

Rob: Well, I imagine it's quite a lot - so I'll say ￡120m.

嗯，我猜這個(gè)數(shù)字是巨大的——所以我覺得是1.2億英鎊。

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.

稍后我們?cè)倏茨愕幕卮鹗欠裾_。我剛才提到了欺詐這個(gè)詞，它是一種通過欺騙別人來賺錢的非法方式。我們可能認(rèn)為我們永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)被騙，但已經(jīng)有數(shù)百萬人收到了虛假的電子郵件、電話或信件，并上當(dāng)受騙。這些虛假的東西看起來是真實(shí)的，并要求我們提供或更新我們的財(cái)務(wù)細(xì)節(jié)。

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 指的是信以為真。例如，今年英國(guó)有成千上萬的人收到了欺詐性的( 或虛假的)電子郵件，要求人們更新支付電視牌照的直接借記細(xì)節(jié)。在英國(guó)，這是我們必須支付的資金，這樣BBC才能運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)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...

這正是BBC第四頻道節(jié)目《你和你的家庭成員》（You and Yours）中一只討論的問題。下面是BBC欺詐調(diào)查員記者莎莉瓦爾對(duì)容易受騙的原因的解釋......

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.

這是一種戲法欺詐。詐騙者一邊分散你的注意力，一邊瞄著你的口袋。我這有封郵件，看起來完全合情合理。郵件上所有的徽標(biāo)和字體都很正確。上面內(nèi)容是我的電視牌照直接支付失敗了，而我需要付這筆錢。語氣很禮貌。

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.

這里有些表達(dá)很棒。她提到了這種欺詐是一種戲法欺詐，意思是使用聰明的方法不誠(chéng)實(shí)地獲取某物——此處指的是錢。

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!

正如莎莉所說，犯罪分子一邊讓你分散注意力，一邊瞄著你的錢包。rifle指的是為了從某處偷盜而翻找——也就是翻你的錢包——非常狡詐！

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，就如這個(gè)例子，詐騙者們——行騙的人——通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)釣魚獲取財(cái)務(wù)信息。這指的不是用魚竿、魚線和魚鉤釣魚，而是通過發(fā)送一封看起來像是來自銀行的郵件，要求獲取機(jī)密信息。

Rob: But banks do warn us not to give away our financial details online and to change our passwords regularly.

但銀行確實(shí)警告我們不要在網(wǎng)上泄露自己的財(cái)務(wù)信息，并定期更改密碼。

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?

但是有時(shí)候罪犯的手法很高明，很容易得逞。《你和你的家庭成員》這一節(jié)目也采訪了社會(huì)工程師珍妮·拉德克利夫。她怎么稱呼這種類型的欺詐呢?

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.

更精細(xì)的詐騙是經(jīng)過深思熟慮的。這種欺詐是分層進(jìn)行的，受騙者知道對(duì)方在索要自己的一些信息。你真正尋求的是一扇偷窺的窗戶——一把只能揭開受騙者身份或個(gè)人信息一小部分的鑰匙。完美的騙局以此為基礎(chǔ)層層設(shè)局，直到給受騙者帶來毀滅性的后果。

Rob: So Jenny Radcliffe is talking about sophisticated fraud. That means it's clever and often complicated - so it can confuse us.

珍妮·拉德克利夫所說的是更精細(xì)的詐騙。這種騙局手法高明并且通常比較復(fù)雜——所以能迷惑我們。

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，詐騙者只需要我們一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)信息——一把鑰匙——最終完全暴露我們的身份和個(gè)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.

正如珍妮所說，對(duì)于受害者來說，結(jié)果是很糟糕的。尤其是當(dāng)某些受害者失去了所有血汗錢的時(shí)候——這是毀滅性的。

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?

當(dāng)然，銀行和安全公司正在努力打擊犯罪，但這仍然是個(gè)問題，之前我問過你，羅伯。根據(jù)英國(guó)財(cái)政部的數(shù)據(jù)，去年犯罪分子通過詐騙偷了多少錢?

Rob: And I said b) ￡120m. That's a lot of money.

我說的是1.2億英鎊。這是一大筆錢。

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.

沒錯(cuò)，但其實(shí)比這還多。2018年，詐騙犯通過欺詐成功騙走12億英鎊——而且這只是英國(guó)的數(shù)據(jù)——放眼全球，這一數(shù)字還會(huì)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.

當(dāng)然，這是一個(gè)嚴(yán)重的問題，但希望我們今天討論的詞匯沒有欺騙你。

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!我們一直在談?wù)撈垓_——一種通過欺騙別人來獲得金錢的犯罪行為——或者通過不誠(chéng)實(shí)的行為來欺騙別人。

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.

我們接著還學(xué)了欺詐——一種通過欺騙別人來賺錢的非法或不誠(chéng)實(shí)的方式。這樣做的人都是詐騙者。

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.

我們談到了動(dòng)詞短語fall for。當(dāng)你對(duì)某事信以為真，意思是相信騙局或謊言是真實(shí)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.

然后我們談到了熟練手法（sleight of hand），意思是使用高超的手段不誠(chéng)實(shí)地獲取某物。還有rifle，意思是搜查某物以便從中偷竊。

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開頭的phishing指的是通過發(fā)郵件或在網(wǎng)上假裝是銀行竊取受騙者個(gè)人信息。最后，我們講到了精細(xì)的詐騙。如果某物是精細(xì)的，表明其手法高超而復(fù)雜。

Rob: Unlike our programme, Sam!

不像我們的節(jié)目這樣，山姆!

Sam: Let's hope so but now, we've reached the end of the programme.

希望如此吧。我們的節(jié)目就到這里。

Rob: See you again soon. Bye!