6 Reading

Look out for these scams!

By now, we should all be used to receiving suspicious
emails that make promises they can’t keep. Or we see
posts on our social media timelines asking us to click
and share our login details, credit card information or
other personal data. Unfortunately, despite the fact that
we are constantly warned against such illegal activity,
some people still believe they can get something for
free. Read on to learn about some classic scams.

The dream holiday

Imagine you were surfing the web when you saw a message on the screen telling you that you’d won
a holiday to the Bahamas. Would you believe it? Perhaps not, but if you saw it on a holiday website,
you’d probably think it’s quite reliable, wouldn’t you? That’s exactly what happened to Katie. The
message on her screen told her to call a number immediately to claim her prize, so that’s what she
did without hesitation. The woman who answered spoke very quickly and mentioned lots of numbers
which Katie didn’t really understand. But she was so excited! The woman said, ‘If you give me your
credit card details, the all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas will be yours.’ But as soon as Katie
gave her the information, she was informed she had to pay some of the costs of the holiday. The
woman even told her that if Katie cancelled the holiday, she would be charged another £1,000!

Dead fairies!
In 2007, Dan Baines, a British sculptor who designs illusions for magicians, announced on his website
that he had been given a dead fairy by a man who had been walking his dog in the countryside. He
posted several photos of the body, with its long, skinny legs and arms and a full set of fairy wings
(which the artist himself had made). Now, what would you think if I told you that he posted this
story on 1st April – April Fool’s Day? Of course, you’d have serious doubts about the truth of the story.
Despite the date, thousands of people fell for it. Mr Baines got hundreds of emails about the fake
fairy. Some people even told him that they had seen exactly the same thing. In the end, he added
a post on his website in which he admitted that he had invented the story. He later sold his creation
on eBay for £280.

Will you play at our wedding?

An American musician got an email from a wedding organiser asking if his band would play
at a wedding reception. He agreed to play for $1,500 and asked to be paid 50% in advance. A few
days later, he received a cheque for $2,500 from the wedding organiser and paid it into his bank
account. The following day the wedding organiser called and told him that their accountant had
made a mistake. The musician was asked to send them back the difference. He told them he would
do so as soon as the money was in his account. Then he was told that the wedding had been
called off because the bride’s mother was ill. The wedding organiser asked him to send back all the
money and he agreed. He transferred $2,500 from his bank account, but unfortunately, the cheque
he had received from the accountant ‘bounced’; in other words, the wedding organiser’s bank refused
to pay him the money. The musician was the victim of a fraud – there was never a wedding and
he lost $2,500.
Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably a lie!

1 UNIT 6 iPhotocopiable Impulse 3 © Macmillan Education Limited 2020 and Macmillan Polska 2022
 Reading 6
An article about online scams

1 Read the article. Choose the sentence that best   OUT | SKILLS
WATCH Tekst z lukami (e-mail)
summarises each story.
Zanim uzupełnisz lukę w e-mailu, postaraj się
1 a Katie didn’t enjoy her holiday in the Bahamas. zidentyfikować kluczowe słowa we fragmencie
b A company took Katie’s credit card information with bezpośrednio przed luką i po niej. Pozwolą Ci one
a phishing scam. odnaleźć w tekście właściwy fragment, który zawiera
2 a A man played an April Fool’s Day trick online, and lots brakującą informację.
of people believed him.
b An artist used an April Fool’s Day trick online to sell 3 Read the article again and answer the questions.
more of his creations. 1 Where did Katie find out about the holiday?
3 a A musician played at a wedding reception, but he was
never paid.
2 Why was Katie confused?
b A musician lost a lot of money when a fraudster asked
him to play at a wedding.
3 Where did the sculptor say he had got the fairy from?
2 Read the WATCH OUT | SKILLS box. Then read
the text again and complete the email. 4 What did Dan do with the fairy?

New message
5 How much did the musician want the wedding
Hi, Dave! organiser to pay him?
Do you remember a conversation we once had
about scams? I’ve just read an article about
6 What mistake did the musician make?
common ways of cheating people. One of them
is to make them think they’ve won something.
A woman saw a notice about a free holiday and 4 EXTEND YOUR VOCABULARY Complete the
quickly 1 which was sentences with the underlined words from the article.
given in it. The person she talked to took her credit 1 We’re making all the food for the party tomorrow
card details and then told her about extra costs. so everything’s ready.
She would also have to 2
2 I can’t believe you this story. It’s totally
if she cancelled the holiday. Another story is of
fake!
a sculptor who announced he had received the
3 When she was younger, she was very
body of a dead fairy, and posted some photos
because she didn’t eat a lot.
of it. He did it on 3
4 The outdoor concert was because
but people didn’t guess it was a joke. They
4 of the storms and the heavy rain.
saying that they had
seen this fairy before! Finally, a musician who lost 5 I found a wallet at school and gave it to the secretary,
his money. He was to play at a wedding and he but no one has come to it yet.
even received a cheque but the organiser said the 6 When my mum has to travel abroad for work, her
wedding 5 . The musician company pays all her .
6
back to the organiser’s 5 Answer the questions.
account. Only the cheque was fake …
The article is a good warning for everyone, don’t 1 Which of the three situations is the greatest warning
you think? to others? Why?
Mick

2 Do you agree with the final line of the text?

Why/Why not?

iPhotocopiable Impulse 3 © Macmillan Education Limited 2020 and Macmillan Polska 2022 UNIT 6 2