ESL lesson plan | B2 | Identifying modern online scams

Summary

This downloadable lesson for B2 ESL students focuses on the critical skill of identifying and understanding modern online scams. This English class material uses an authentic video report to equip students with the vocabulary and grammatical structures necessary to discuss digital fraud and protect themselves from common scams. Students will learn to recognize red flags in suspicious messages and react effectively to potential threats.

This lesson helps intermediate students explore the mechanics of online scams and develop critical thinking for digital safety. Activities include a warm-up discussion on suspicious messages, a vocabulary matching task, and comprehension questions based on an investigative video detailing a pervasive toll scam. Students will also practice using the Past Simple Passive to describe how scams are carried out and their widespread impact, preparing them to discuss digital security with confidence.

Access lesson

Activities

A warm-up discussion where students share personal experiences with suspicious messages and common online scams they've encountered or heard about.
Video comprehension questions based on an investigative report demonstrating a modern toll scam, where students fill in blanks using specific vocabulary from the audio.
A vocabulary matching exercise to reinforce key terms such as impounded, scam, phishing, and authorization code.
A grammar exercise focusing on the Past Simple Passive to help students describe events where the doer of the action is unknown or less important than the action itself, particularly in the context of scams.
A vocabulary in context task to practice applying new terms in sentence completion.
A grammar practice task requiring students to rewrite active voice sentences into the Past Simple Passive.
Speaking practice involving discussion questions about staying safe online, encouraging the use of newly acquired vocabulary and grammar.

00:06 - [Gary] There we go.

00:08 - It starts with a simple text.

00:14 Urgent message.

00:15 You have an unpaid toll.

00:16 It's important that you take care of this fine

00:18 over the next 12 hours,

00:19 or your vehicle will be impounded.

00:21 This is probably very similar to a text message

00:25 that you've received.

00:27 Americans received an-all time high

00:29 of over 330,000 toll scam messages

00:33 in a single day in September.

00:35 Federal investigators say that crime groups in China

00:38 are behind the scam,

00:39 and they've made more than $1 billion

00:42 over the past three years.

00:44 And it all links back to these toll road texts

00:48 that everybody's getting.

00:49 It's a major annoyance

00:51 and it's a major source of revenue

00:52 for Chinese organized crime.

00:55 I've been reporting on these scam messages for months

00:58 and have worked with a cyber threat researcher

01:00 to set up a fake phishing page

01:02 and show you exactly how it works.

01:05 - [Gary] So this is the fish that Bob's going to be getting

01:08 that we made.

01:11 - So it looks like I'm supposed to be paying a $6.69 fine,

01:16 but if I go any further here,

01:19 much worse things are gonna happen.

01:21 The phishing page is now asking me for my contact details,

01:24 my name, my address.

01:27 They're just basically trying to steal

01:28 all my credit card details,

01:29 which is the point of this scam.

01:32 - Bob is currently entering his data,

01:35 and here we just got the first piece of it

01:37 and we've got his credit card details here.

01:40 We'll put them in the wallet here,

01:42 and that's going to prompt an authorization code.

01:45 So that'll be the last piece

01:46 of getting the card on this phone.

01:49 It's sending an authorization code to Bob's email.

01:53 - Gary has all of my card details,

01:55 but my bank, like most banks,

01:57 has protections and needs to verify that it's actually me.

02:02 The scammers need the authorization code.

02:04 It tells your bank to trust the phone,

02:07 so they ask you for the code,

02:09 saying it will let your overdue toll payment go through.

02:12 The message is saying,

02:13 please follow these last steps for Google Pay.

02:15 Now, that would be a warning to some people,

02:17 but this scam is very effective.

02:20 Okay, I've entered my code and it's been accepted.

02:23 That means, according to this website,

02:25 that my toll has been paid, my record has been cleared,

02:30 a receipt will be sent to my email.

02:32 I'll look for that.

02:35 Once the scammers put your code in, you are cooked.

02:38 Your card is on their smartphone wallet.

02:42 - The last piece was we had to get that authorization code.

02:45 We've entered the authorization code,

02:47 and now it has our credit card loaded on the wallet.

02:50 We're ready to go. It's time to go shopping.

02:54 - When the scam happens in the real world,

02:56 the criminals in China, they don't wanna shop there

02:59 because it will raise red flags

03:01 with the credit card company.

03:03 So they've developed software

03:04 that lets them tap their phone in China

03:06 and transmit your authenticated credit card information

03:09 to a second phone.

03:11 That phone is used by a shopper they've recruited

03:14 in your area to make purchases.

03:19 We worked with a researcher in Amsterdam

03:21 who had recreated this remote tap-to-pay trick

03:23 and let us use it for our demo.

03:26 I tapped my smartphone wallet to a phone

03:27 with special software that sent my card information

03:30 from San Francisco to his phone in Amsterdam.

03:34 - The signal's being sent from the west coast of the US

03:38 over the Atlantic to a server

03:41 that we created to this phone,

03:44 and in real time, we're gonna do a payment

03:47 at a point of sale device in the cafe here.

03:52 - [Robert] In the demo, we bought an apple juice

03:54 just as a proof of concept,

03:55 but criminals are buying everything from iPhones

03:58 to luxury handbags to gift cards.

04:01 - They purchase it and then put it on sale on Alibaba

04:04 or eBay for a greatly discounted rate,

04:09 but some of it is just being shipped overseas.

04:11 - [Robert] On November 12th, Google sued one of the makers

04:14 of the fishing kits used in these scams,

04:16 saying they had duped over a million people

04:19 in at least 121 countries.

04:22 The best way to avoid being scammed, stay alert.

04:27 - If somebody says, I'm going to impound your vehicle

04:29 because you have a $6 fine,

04:31 that doesn't make sense.

04:33 Slow down and think it through,

04:35 and you'll save yourself from a lot of losses.

Vocabulary focus

The vocabulary section introduces essential terms related to online fraud and cybersecurity. Key terms include impounded, scam, phishing, authorization code, revenue, red flags, duped, and stay alert. Students will learn to understand and use these terms to discuss various types of online threats and protective measures.

Grammar focus

This lesson concentrates on the Past Simple Passive structure. Students will learn how to use "was/were + past participle" to describe actions where the agent is unknown or less important than the action itself. This grammatical form is particularly useful for discussing incidents like scams, where the focus is on what happened to the victim or the assets, rather than who performed the action. This helps students talk about news or events in a formal or detached manner.

Identifying modern online scams

Summary

Activities

Vocabulary focus

Grammar focus

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