Nowadays there are many people who fall victims after using their bank cards online to buy goods. This can happen in different ways. The most common way of cyber fraud is done via email. An unsuspecting person receives an email from a company he has never heard of offering to sell him goods at very cheap prices. The person ends up logging on their "secure" web site and use his or her bank detail only to find out a few days later that they have lost a lot of money.
Inheritance
People inherit money after their parents or grandparents die. However, some people get an email telling them that a distant relative has died and that they are the only people who have the right to control the money. For them to get the money, they have to pay a fee or give their credit card number as a start. So many people easily fall victims to this trick and end up losing a lot of money to people who live overseas.
Phishing
Some people get an email from a reputable company asking them for money. The email looks authentic and has the logo for the company but in fact the real company doesn't know any thing about the sender or the receiver of the email. The person ends up sending money and losing it. Phishing is a common method of getting money from people unlawfully.
Very Cheap Prices
Sometimes people send you an email trying to sell you a product for a very cheap price. You feel happy and send your card details to them. You end up not getting the item and discover that a lot of money has been withdrawn from your bank account. You believe that the email came from a trusted company but you don't know that it was a scam to drain your bank account.
Online Auctions
Some people use auction web sites to sell stuff that doesn't exist. The highest bidder pays a lot of money for an item that never gets delivered to his or her address. Some web sites try to prevent this from happening by providing insurance but thieves always invent new ways of stealing money from others.
Con Artists
A con artist is a smooth talker. He or she is very well dressed and can convince you that he is a very important professional. Those people use very expensive hotels and cars to trick their victims. They can set up a web site and tell people about their investments all over the world using pictures that they copied from the internet. They tell their targets very convincing stories of how easy they will enable them to make heaps of money. At the end of the day, people lose money and the con artists disappear.
The Nigerian Scam
The Nigerian Scam started more than 30 years ago before the internet became available for millions of users. It depended on the mail service. People used to get a letter from Nigeria in the mail asking them to provide their bank details to transfer money to them in their bank accounts. After a few days, the sender of the letter asks the receiver to send a few thousand dollars to make sure the money gets transferred immediately. Of course no money gets sent and the person ends up losing a lot of money.
Stealing Credit Cards Pin Numbers
Thousands of bank customers find out that they have lost thousands of dollars when their bank statements are sent in the mail or when they check their bank accounts online. It happens when they go to an ATM machine to withdraw money but fail to realize that there is a hidden camera recording their pin numbers when they use the machine. Some professional hackers use this method to get people's PIN numbers and then use this information to drain their bank accounts. People sometimes get very surprised to know that their credit card has been used in a country they have never been to.
Congratulations! You Have Won a Prize
You get an email or a window opens on your computer screen while you are working telling you that you are the lucky visitor number one million to the web site and are entitled to a brand new car or a dream holiday overseas. They will ask for your credit card number to pay for admin fees or to ship the item to your address. Most people ignore such advertisements but very few believe them and log on a web site and enter the details of their credit card and end up losing a lot of money. Always remember that if the offer is too good to be true, it can be a scam.
You can watch these videos to learn more about scams. They are really good for your English.
http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/CA256EB5000644CE/page/Teacher+resources?OpenDocument&1=970-Teacher+resources~&2=~&3=~
Now I want you to read the text on pages 18 and 19 in your book. I will put a link to a test that you can do online from home very soon. You will need to use your dictionary to understand the text. Good luck.
If you would like to read more, you can click the link provided here.
http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud
