– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

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

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
scam /skæm/ B1	noun - a dishonest scheme; a fraud verb - to deceive or cheat
impersonation /ˌɪmpər.səˈneɪ.ʃən/ B2	noun - the act of pretending to be another person
legitimate /lɪˈdʒɪt.ɪ.mət/ B1	adjective - lawful; genuine
urgent /ˈɜːr.dʒənt/ A2	adjective - requiring immediate action
evolve /ɪˈvɒlv/ B2	verb - to develop gradually
fraudulent /ˈfrɔː.dʒʊ.lənt/ B2	adjective - obtained, done, or involving deception
invest /ɪnˈvest/ B1	verb - to put money into something with the expectation of profit
scheme /skiːm/ B1	noun - a plan, often a secret one
manipulate /məˈnɪp.jʊ.leɪt/ B2	verb - to control or influence someone cleverly
victim /ˈvɪk.tɪm/ A2	noun - a person harmed or made to suffer
evolved /ɪˈvɒlvd/ B2	verb - developed gradually
scale /skeɪl/ B1	noun - the relative size or extent of something
persuade /pərˈsweɪd/ B2	verb - to cause someone to do something through reasoning or argument
awareness /əˈwer.nəs/ B1	noun - knowledge or perception of a situation or fact
sophisticated /səˈfɪstɪ.keɪ.tɪd/ C1	adjective - complex or refined
devastated /ˈdev.ə.steɪ.tɪd/ B2	adjective - extremely shocked or upset

Key Grammar Structures

• they are one of the most popular types of scam in Vietnam right now

  ➔ Superlative degree with 'most'

  ➔ The phrase 'one of the most popular' uses the superlative degree to emphasize the high popularity of scams in Vietnam.

• if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is

  ➔ Subjunctive mood in 'too good to be true'

  ➔ The phrase 'too good to be true' uses the subjunctive mood to express a hypothetical or unlikely situation.

• they might even spoof their caller ID to make it look like they're calling you from an official number

  ➔ Use of modal verb 'might' for possibility

  ➔ The modal verb 'might' is used to indicate a possible action or event, showing uncertainty.

• once you transfer the money, of course, it's gone and you'll never hear from these police officers again

  ➔ Use of 'once' to indicate a specific time

  ➔ The word 'once' is used to specify the exact moment when the action (transferring money) occurs, followed by the consequence.

• they create a sense of urgency, like you have to act now or you'll miss out

  ➔ Use of 'like' for comparison or example

  ➔ The word 'like' is used here to introduce an example or comparison, illustrating how urgency is created.

• legitimate companies won't ask for your password over the phone

  ➔ Use of 'won't' for strong negation

  ➔ The contraction 'won't' is used to strongly negate the action, emphasizing that legitimate companies never ask for passwords over the phone.

• if a deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is

  ➔ Use of 'probably' for likelihood

  ➔ The word 'probably' is used to express a high likelihood that the deal is not genuine if it seems too good to be true.

• scammers are always adapting and changing their methods

  ➔ Present continuous tense for ongoing action

  ➔ The present continuous tense ('are adapting and changing') is used to describe actions that are happening now and will continue in the future.