ESL lesson plan | B1 | Staying safe from online scams

Summary

This ESL lesson for B1 English students explores Online safety and AI. Using a real video as the basis for discussion, students develop reading and listening comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar skills across a 90-minute class.

The grammar focus is Reported Speech (Statements). Key vocabulary includes scam (noun), trick (verb), pretending (verb (gerund)) and more, all drawn directly from the source material. The practical English section gives students useful phrases for real-life situations: You think your friend is about to make a mistake or is in a dangerous situation. You want to warn them and suggest what they should do..

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Activities

A warm-up discussion to activate prior knowledge and get students thinking about the topic before watching or reading.
Comprehension exercises based on the video to check understanding of the main ideas and key details.
A grammar focus on Reported Speech (Statements). We use reported speech (or indirect speech) to tell someone what another person said. When we do this, we often change the tense of the verb.
Vocabulary expansion with advanced expressions related to Online safety and AI not found in the source material.
Practical English phrases for You think your friend is about to make a mistake or is in a dangerous situation. You want to warn them and suggest what they should do., with exercises to practise using them naturally.
A speaking task where students role-play a real-world scenario, applying vocabulary and phrases from the lesson.

00:02 LAWMAKERS TO ADDRESS THE SHORTFALL BEFORE THE HOUSE REVIEWS THE BUDGET THIS WEEK.

00:05 IN A FOX CAROLINA SAFETY ALERT....

00:07 LAST WEEK...A PICKENS COUNTY RESIDENT REACHED OUT TO US... SAYING SOMEONE IS USING HER IMAGE TO TRY AND TRICK HER FRIENDS OUT OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.

00:15 SO, WE STARTED DIGGING AND FOUND OUT FROM THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU THAT AN A-I SCAM IS SPREADING ACROSS THE COUNTRY...INCLUDING RIGHT HERE IN THE UPSTATE.

00:23 FOX CAROLINA'S ALEXA ERBACH EXPLAINS HOW *YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF.

00:27 "violated, yeah definitely, they're talking, they got my picture, people think it's me"

00:35 (cindy) IMAGINE THIS...YOU GET A VIDEO CALL FROM A CLOSE FRIEND...YOU CAN'T HEAR THEM...BUT YOU CAN SEE THEIR MOUTH MOVING.

00:44 AFTER A FEW CONFUSING MESSAGES BACK AND FORTH...THEY THEN TELL YOU...THEY NEED FINANCIAL HELP...SO THEY ASK FOR MONEY.

00:52 THAT'S WHAT CINDY HAMILTON SAYS HAPPENED WHEN SHE ANSWERED A VIDEO CALL OF SOMEONE PRETENDING TO BE HER FRIEND.

00:57 A FEW DAYS LATER...HAMILTON SAID THE SAME THING...STARTED HAPPENING TO HER OWN FRIENDS...GETTING VIDEO AND TEXT MESSAGES FROM SOMEONE PRETENDING TO BE *HER.

01:03 (18:50:55) Cindy Hamilton, pickens county resident

01:06 "I had my pastor call me today and he asked me, 'cindy are you ok?' i said, 'yeah,' and he said somebody had told him that they saw that i needed money, and he said do you need money? And i said no"

01:17 .THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREUA SAYS IT'S PART OF A GROWING SCAM USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO SWINDLE PEOPLE OUT OF MONEY.

01:26 (02:28:43) Hunter Jones, President and CEO BBB "we see a lot of cases where someone is on the phone with someone, being impersonated, they could be a family member, they could be in an emergency OR...THEY COULD BE TRYING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING....

01:40 (09:48:45) "the post read, 'it's $2500. I'm out of town. If you put $700 down, I'll hold the car. When i get back in town, I'll refund you the money. So it sounded really legit"

01:50 (phoner) DIXIE HOLLIDAY GOES TO CHURCH WITH HAMILTON. WHEN SHE SAW THAT HAMILTON WANTED TO SELL A CAR...SHE WANTED TO GET IT FOR HER DAUGHTER... (09:50:04) "her facebook called me. It literally looked identical to her. It looked like me and her were facetiming. Her lips were moving and everything, but there was no voice"

02:08 (phoner) BUT WHEN WHO SHE THOUGHT WAS HAMILTON STARTED ASKING HER TO SEND THE FUNDS VIA DIFFERENT PLATFORMS...LIKE CHIME AND VENMO...SHE FELT LIKE SOMETHING WAS OFF.

02:17 SO SHE FOUND HAMILTON'S NUMBER AND CALLED HER DIRECTLY.

02:22 (19:06:02) "these are what they thought was me she was talking to on text, and she sent them to me, and i said, this is not be, don't send them any money, they are using ai. And she said, 'oh wow,'

02:34 (cindy) IF SHE DIDN'T CALL..HOLLIDAY SAID SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN SCAMMED OUT OF 25-HUNDRED DOLLARS.

02:39 SOME WAYS TO SAFEGUARD YOURSELF... ACCORDING TO THE BBB... IF SOMETHING SEEMS A LITTLE *OFF ABOUT A VIDEO MESSAGE YOU RECEIVE FROM SOMEONE CLAIMING TO BE YOUR FRIEND OR FAMILY...FOR EXAMPLE...IF IT'S A LITTLE BLURRY OR YOU CAN'T HEAR THEM...CONTACT THAT PERSON RIGHT AWAY TO VERIFY IT'S ACTUALLY THEM.

03:02 ALSO...BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU POST...AS SCAMMERS CAN EASILY USE YOUR AUDIO AND IMAGE.

03:04 HAMILTON'S MESSAGE TO ANYONE LISTENTING... (18:52:15) "you know if they get these calls, don't answer them at all"

Vocabulary focus

The vocabulary section introduces B1-level words and phrases related to Online safety and AI. Key terms include scam (noun), trick (verb), pretending (verb (gerund)), swindle (verb), impersonated (verb (past participle)). Students practise using these terms in context through exercises drawn from the source material.

Grammar focus

This lesson focuses on Reported Speech (Statements). We use reported speech (or indirect speech) to tell someone what another person said. When we do this, we often change the tense of the verb.

Staying safe from online scams

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AI scams: reporting a problem and giving advice

Summary

Activities

Vocabulary focus

Grammar focus

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