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these scams can make a ton of money and
they are one of the most popular types
of scam in Vietnam right now what's up
everyone podcast slow and clear go whats
up
English in this podcast you're going to
learn a ton of useful words and phrases
to talk about scams and how to avoid
them
also make sure to listen until the end
of the podcast where we'll review some
highlevel vocabulary words from this
podcast that will help you to take your
English to the next
level but first let me tell you a quick
story about the first time in my life
that I got scammed so the first time I
got scammed was in a game called
RuneScape now in this game I had spent
weeks saving up to buy this really cool
item that I was pretty proud of so I was
wearing the item and walking around when
this player came up to me and told me he
knew a secret to duplicate the
item duplicate means to make a copy of
it so to make two of them so instead of
one item I would have
two and he said all I needed to do was
drop my armor on the ground and then
press alt f4 on my keyboard and then I
would magically have two of them because
of a bug in the
game so being around 10 years old and
extremely naive I thought wow okay
sounds good let's do
it so I dropped the item on the ground
and pressed alt f4 now what I didn't
know was that alt f4 is the keyboard
shortcut to close your program
immediately so when I pressed it my game
closed and by the time I logged back in
the other player had picked up my item
and disappeared
at the time I was really devastated
because I had spent a lot of time to get
that item and then it was gone just like
that and that was the first time in my
life that I got scammed and I still
remember it till this
day now it's kind of funny when I look
back on it but at that time of course I
was pretty heartbroken about it
however I did learn a valuable lesson
that is if something sounds too good to
be true then it probably
is ever since then I've been really
careful about scams so luckily it was
just an item in a video game and not
real money so I told you this story just
to show that scams are everywhere and
anybody can get scammed now this leads
to the main content of this podcast so
in this podcast we're going to cover
four main things first we'll talk about
how scams have evolved over
time second we'll look at some of the
most common Mo modern scams in Vietnam
with some stories about each one
including a very famous scam in Vietnam
that was uncovered just a few months
ago third uh we'll talk about the
psychology behind scams like why even
smart people fall for them and finally
I'll give you some red flags to watch
out for and tips to protect yourself
from scams but before we start if you
want to improve your listening skills
and learn use ful vocabulary then check
out my product called the 1,000 most
common words in English this product is
an organized PDF of the 1,000 most
common words in English and every word
includes the IPA pronunciation in
American English the meaning of each
word and example sentences it comes with
slow and clear audio files read by me
for every single word and sentence so
you can practice your listening skills
and read along to practice your
pronunciation it even comes with a study
guide showing you how to learn and
practice 10 new words each day so if you
want to check that out then just click
the link in the description below with
that purchase you won't only improve
your English skills but you'll also help
to support the channel so thank you so
much all right let's get started first
with the evolution of scams as you
probably know scams aren't really new
they've been around basically forever in
the old days you had these guys called
snake oil salesmen who would travel from
town to town selling fake medicine that
they claimed could cure anything from
baldness to cancer you name it and these
people would set up in a market or Town
Square and make these crazy claims about
their products like oh it can cure this
or it can help you do that so of course
people would buy their products and it
wouldn't have those effects but by the
time they realized that those snake oil
sales men were already in another
town so that is an old type of scam but
as technology has grown scams of course
have evolved too they've gone from male
scams to phone scams to email scams and
now we have social media and messaging
app
scams the platforms change but the basic
techniques stay pretty much the same
what's different now is the
scale in the past a
scammer might have been able to trick a
few dozen people in their
lifetime but now they can reach millions
of potential victims with modern
technology like what we've seen with a
few big Ponzi schemes and you know
schemes on messaging apps zow WhatsApp
all those things so one thing that many
people wonder is why do scams continue
to persist and evolve despite increased
awareness of them well it's because they
work even if only 1% of people fall for
a scam if you send it to a million
people that's still
10,000 victims and that's a lot of money
and scammers are always adapting and
changing their methods as soon as people
catch on to one type of scam the
scammers modify it or create a new one
so now speaking of new scams let's move
on to some common modern scams in
Vietnam for each of these I'll tell you
a story about each one to help you
understand how they
work first let's talk about one of the
most dangerous scams in Vietnam right
now which is the police impersonation
scam this scam is something that I've
heard about a lot like I've seen the
warnings um posted in the elevator and
I've even gotten texts to my phone of
people claiming to be the police
so here's how it typically works first
you receive a call or a text from
someone claiming to be a police officer
or like a government
official they might even spoof their
caller ID to make it look like they're
calling you from an official
number they tell you that you're
involved in some kind of legal trouble
like maybe they say your dcard was found
at a crime scene or that you're
suspected of money laundering or tax
evasion and the scammer will sound very
official and they might even know some
basic information about you like your
full name and your address then they'll
create a sense of fear and panic saying
that you could be arrested and unless
you cooperate with their
investigation sometimes uh they'll
transfer you to other officers to make
it seem more legitimate but eventually
they'll ask you to transfer money to a
like secure government account or
something for safekeeping during the
investigation or to prove your money
isn't from illegal activities
once you transfer the money of course
it's gone and you'll never hear from
these police officers
again so remember of course real police
officers in Vietnam will never call you
and ask you for money transfers so
remember if you get a call or a text
like this just hang up the call or
ignore the text and you could report it
to the police another very common scam
in Vietnam is the OTP which means
one-time password scam this scam is
super important to know about because it
can happen to anyone with a bank account
or ewallet so here's how it works first
you get a call or a message from someone
claiming to be from your bank or Momo
zope or any other Financial
Service they might say they're updating
their system checking for suspicious
activity or maybe that you've won a
prize then they'll ask you to share the
OTP code that was just sent to your
phone what's actually happening is that
the scammer is trying to log into your
account on their device and and this
triggers the real service to send you an
OTP if you give them that code they'll
have full access to your account and
they can transfer all the money out or
they can make payments with your account
whatever so whatever you do do not share
uh your OTP with anyone no matter who
they claim to be because no legit bank
or ewallet service or company will ever
ask you for your OTP over the phone or
in a message all right uh next scam now
let's talk about Marketplace scams and
these are very common in
Vietnam here's how it would happen so
let's say you're browsing chat or
Facebook Marketplace and you see an
incred rible deal maybe it's the new
iPhone for 50% off or a luxury bag that
usually costs 20 million Dong but now
it's listed for Just 2 million sounds
like a great deal so you message the
seller but the seller has a story maybe
they got that item as a gift and they
don't need it or maybe they're moving
abroad and they need to sell it
quickly so when you talk to them they're
super friendly and they're helpful but
there's always a catch like they can't
meet in person or the item needs to be
shipped from far away so they ask for
payment upfront meaning payment before
you get the item maybe that could be
through a bank transfer or an ewallet
once they receive your money they
disappear or they send you a fake or
just a completely different
item now this happens a lot especially
with high value items like phones and
motorbikes so remember if a deal seems
too good to be true then it probably is
all right so another type of scam that
is common not just in Vietnam but around
the world is called the romance scam
these scams usually Target women and it
might be done differently depending on
the country but in Western countries
like the USA and Canada scammers often
pose as people in the military who are
deployed overseas here's a typical story
of how this scam would happen there was
a woman let's call her Sarah who met a
guy online who claimed to be an American
Soldier stationed in
Afghanistan his profile showed a
handsome man in military uniform and he
was very charming and attentive when he
spoke to her he would message her good
morning and good night every day despite
the time difference CU he such a good
guy and he would call her when he could
and he just really seemed invested in
learning about her
life so after about 2 months of talking
he told Sarah he was having trouble
accessing his military pay and needed a
short-term loan of around
$22,000 which he promised to pay back
once he returned to the
us because she trusted him and thought
they had a real connection she sent him
the
money then he needed more money for
another emergency like maybe medical
bills or to help a fellow Soldier
eventually she'd realized she'd been
scammed when he disappeared after
getting about
$88,000 from
her you know sometimes these scams are
even way more money they could be 50,000
100,000 I've seen cases where it's even
a few hundred
th000 the thing is for many of these
people the worst part wasn't even losing
the money but it was finding out that
the relationship that they thought was
real was actually all a lie so this type
of scam happens to people all over the
world many of them uh are women but they
can happen uh to men too and throughout
these scams the pattern is the same uh
the person builds trust they create an
emergency and then they ask for money
and after that they disappear okay so
the last type of scam we'll talk about
is the investment scam these scams can
make a ton of money and they are one of
the most popular types of scam in
Vietnam right now so here's how the
typical investment scam would happen so
imagine you're scrolling through social
media and you see a popular influencer
showing off luxury cars and Villas
claiming they made their Fortune through
Forex Trading or cryptocurrency or
something like that so you look into it
a bit and you find out they have offices
across Vietnam professional look
websites and they even use real trading
platforms everything seems
legit then they offer you an investment
opportunity with 20 to 30% monthly
returns that's pretty amazing so you
start with a small amount and surprising
L you see profits immediately on the
platform so now you're super excited and
you decide to invest more
money but when you try to withdraw your
earnings suddenly there's all these fees
that you need to pay first or the
platform is having some technical
problems and you can't actually withdraw
your money some reason here or there
that stops you from getting your money
back so then eventually you might find
out that the influencer has been
arrested their offices have been shut
down and thousands of people have lost
their money this story might sound
familiar because something very similar
happened here in Vietnam recently where
a social media personality I'm not going
going to say his name was arrested for
running one of the largest investment
scams in Vietnam's history so the
authorities seized which means took
billions of dong in assets and thousands
of people lost their savings so of
course be super careful with any
investment promising guaranteed High
returns with no risk
especially if it's being promoted by
influencers showing off you know luxury
cars and their lavish Lifestyles all
that stuff okay so we've talked about a
few different types of scams now let's
talk about the psychology behind scams
the question that many people ask is why
do even smart people fall for these
scams I think it's important to
understand this because sometimes people
can feel stupid when they get scammed
but really scammers are just exploiting
basic human
psychology like scammers know exactly
which emotional triggers to use against
you they use fear like when they pretend
to be the police saying you're involved
in a crime they use greed promise
missing huge Returns on investments or
things like lottery winnings and greed
is also how I got scammed for the first
time because I wanted two of my item and
that's what got me
scammed they can also use love and
connection like in Romance scams and
they always create a sense of urgency
like you have to act now or you'll miss
out or you have to decide quickly or
something bad will happen and when we're
emotional we don't think as clearly as
we would normally our rational brain
gets overpowered by our emotions so
along with using our emotions against us
scammers also use social engineering
techniques they might pretend to be an
authority figure like uh the police or
in the government they create fake
personas that seem
trustworthy they use like complicated
words to confuse you and they often know
just enough personal information about
you maybe they got your address and your
name from a a data breach or from social
media and that helps them to seem
legitimate okay so now that we know some
different types of scams and the tricks
that scammers use to scam people what
are some red flags to watch out for
across different types of scams here are
the main
ones number one is
urgency if someone is pressuring you to
act immediately that's a huge red flag
number two they request you to use
unusual payment methods so if someone
asks you to pay through gift cards or
cryptocurrency or some type of money
transfer be
careful number three they ask for your
personal
information legitimate companies won't
ask you for passwords or OTP codes or
complete ID details over the phone or
email and of course whatever you do do
not give your OTP no matter what just do
not do it number four poor grammar or
spelling so if the scam is in English
they say that they could use poor
grammar or spelling uh because maybe the
scammer's first language isn't
English but another reason they might
use poor grammar or spelling in English
or
Vietnamese is to filter out the people
who are attentive to detail for example
if someone responds to an email that has
the spelling mistakes and grammar
mistakes then it shows that that person
isn't super attentive to
details and therefore they are an easier
Target for the scammer that saves the
scamers time because they don't want to
waste time to try to scam people who are
harder to scam okay red flag number five
is when an offer seems too good to be
true so whether it's an investment a
product a job if the offer seems
unrealistic then it probably is and
number six is emotional manipulation
so if you feel like unusually scared or
excited or emotionally pressured then
just step back and think critically
really try to be careful okay so those
were a few red flags to look out for
make sure if any of those pop up then be
very
careful now let's go over some key
vocabulary words that we used just now
now when talking about scams okay the
first word of course is
scam
scam I think you already know what it
means another example is he fell for an
online scam and lost money so a scam can
be a noun like that's a scam or it can
be a verb like he scammed me the next
word is imperson
ation
impersonation impersonation is a noun
meaning to pretend to be someone
else the verb form is
impersonate
impersonate so for example we could say
the scammer was impersonating a bank
employee all right the next word is
OTP which means one-time password
OTP now an OTP is a security code that
is valid for only one
login for example never share your OTP
with anyone the next word is
legitimate
legitimate this is an adjective which
describes something that is real legal
or Genuine so not fake for example
legitimate companies won't ask for your
password over the phone the next word is
urgency urgency so urgency is when
something requires immediate
action uh urgency is a noun and Urgent
is the adjective for example the scammer
created urgency by saying the offer
would expire in 1 hour the next word is
spoof spoof so spoof this is a verb when
scammers disguise their phone number or
email to make it look like it's coming
from somewhere else like a trusted
source for
example they spoofed the Bank's phone
number to make their call seem genuine
and genuine means the same as legitimate
the next word is red flag red
flag this is a noun and it's a warning
sign uh of danger or a problem for
example being asked to pay via gift card
is a major red flag the next one is
Ponzi
scheme Ponzi scheme
so a scheme is like a plan and Ponzi
you've probably already heard that in
Vietnamese so a Ponzi scheme is a type
of scam um where existing investors are
paid with the money from new investors
which makes them think that they're
getting legitimate Returns on their
Investments for example the investment
turned out to be a Ponzi scheme that
collapsed when they couldn't find new
investors all right the next word is
naive
naive naive is an adjective which
describes a lack of experience or wisdom
or judgment like being too trusting for
example I was naive to believe I could
get rich quickly without any risk okay
the next word is
authenticate
authenticate so authenticate is the verb
authentication is the
noun and this means to prove or verify
the identity of a person or thing for
example two Factor authentication helps
protect your account
the next word is
fraudulent fraudulent so fraudulent is
uh an adjective the noun is
fraud and this means to be obtained done
by or involving deception meaning
tricking you especially to get your
money for example the website was
fraudulent and designed to steal credit
card information all right guys so if
you want to keep practicing your
listening skills and learning new words
and hear about the time I got scammed at
my first job then check out this video
right here I hope you enjoyed the
podcast and I'll see you in the next one
see you later
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