This is a download from BBC Learning English.
To find out more, visit our website.
Hello, I'm Sam and welcome to Six Minute English.
This is the program where in just six minutes we discuss an interesting topic and teach some related English vocabulary.
Joining me to do this is Rob.
Hello and today we're talking about fraud.
Fraud is the criminal activity of getting money by deceiving people or tricking people by doing something dishonest.
There are many ways to do this and much of it is happening online these days.
We'll talk more about this in a moment, but first a very honest quiz question for you to answer, Rob.
According to UK Finance, an organisation that represents the British banking industry,
how much money did criminals steal through fraud and scams last year?
Was it A, 1.2 million pounds?
B, 120 million?
Or C, 1.2 billion pounds?
Well, I imagine it's quite a lot, so I'll say 120 million pounds.
Okay, we'll find out if you're right later in the program.
Now, I just mentioned the word scam, which is an illegal way of making money by tricking someone.
We may think that will never be scammed, but already millions of people have fallen for fake emails, phone calls or letters that look genuine and ask us to give or update our financial details.
To fall for means to believe something that is a trick or a lie to be true.
This year, for example, thousands of people in the UK fell for a fraudulent or fake email,