Pratique du Shadowing: Infiltrating BANK SCAMMERS - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
Création de la leçon...
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In this video, we're going to blow the lid on a bank impersonation scam.
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You know, the type of people who send messages to your phone which sound like this.
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This call is from Bank Security Department.
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We have received two charges from your card this morning.
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The first charge is of £300 from Amazon and the second charge is of £1 ,100 on an international money transfer website.
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Although this message isn't from your bank, a lot of people believe it may be and will press 1 or 2 and speak to scammers.
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To allow these transactions press 1 to cancel or speak to our support team press 2.
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Thank you.
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And pressing any key in your phone will connect you to one of the people in this room.
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They make thousands of those phone calls in the hope that someone will believe it's really their bank.
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And the reason I have this video footage is because I sent someone in to infiltrate them.
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They work in a building called Levana Cyber Heights.
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It's in the north Indian city of Lucknow.
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And although this recording was made in March 2024, I know for certain that this group have occupied several different buildings in the area.
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I picked up their general location from the wireless networks around this building, but what I didn't know was exactly which floor they occupied.
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And that's why I got someone to go into the building
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and search each floor and eventually he found their offices on the 6th floor right beside a nightclub called Big Daddy.
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He got someone to let him in
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and in the room he could see the computers which I knew were being used by the scammers on a daily basis.
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But if I was to stop this operation, I'd have to inform the police and they always need a victim.
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I would have to watch what they did, learn their techniques and find these victims.
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And that wouldn't take long as I could hear their phone calls.
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I've been crying my eyes out.
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I thought you were a scab.
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I thought just on my honey.
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Are you true?
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Yes, absolutely.
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200%.
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What seems to be wrong?
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Well, I haven't had the phone call.
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No, no, no. We were busy in the server room.
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I said there are so many things going on.
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So, we were busy in a corner tracing it down.
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So you don't panic, relax, okay?
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Oh, I thought you were...
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I thought I obviously thought you were...
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No, no, no. Very soon your online banking portal will be open.
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You will be able to see all of your balances by the end of the day.
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Okay, so just relax, calm down.
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Don't cry.
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Why are you crying?
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The fraudsters would be crying in the prison now, okay?
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You have done a great job.
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Yes, don't panic.
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Everything is fine.
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You haven't lost a single penny till now.
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Why should you be worried?
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Okay?
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Your portal will be open as soon as the person is arrested, okay?
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And you'll be able to see all of your money back in there as it was, 39 ,000 will be there in that account very soon.
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Rather, it's there, it's not being displayed.
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because your account is compromised.
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As soon as they leave your account, it will be fine.
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Please do not say this to anybody.
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Let us finish this investigation, okay?
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As you can gather from that conversation, this victim has already paid money, and the scammers are, as usual, asking her to keep everything quiet.
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This is the hallmark of a scam.
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This group get their victims to move money from their bank accounts in one of two ways.
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They either get them to withdraw cash and send it to a Mule address somewhere in the UK, or alternatively, they give them instructions to go into the bank
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and make a money transfer to what they call a safe account.
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By the time I'd overheard that phone call, the victim had already posted £15 ,000 and was in the process of posting another £18 ,000.
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The phone ringing in the background was in fact a victim's phone
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and the scammer is now listening to a conversation between this victim and her son.
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I had a phone call back from the man who I thought would scammed me.
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They've arrested people from NatWest Bank who've been trying to get into my account
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and they've arrested them and he's just phoned me back and said all that money should be they got to your account?
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I don't know son, I honestly don't know.
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And if anyone is wondering why scammers manage to get away with scams like these, have a think about the numbers involved here.
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This particular group were phoning tens of thousands of people every day
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and eventually they're going to find one who's vulnerable and it seems to be the case here.
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that have been arrested, yeah.
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That actually worked for the bank?
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Yeah.
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And with this conversation you can see just how believable these scammers are.
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The story of bank employees attempting to steal their customers money was one
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that was used all the time by this group and others who are bank impersonators.
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This is the way they convince people to go to their banks
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and not mention anything about a phone call they've had earlier in the day.
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refund what she lost.
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But that does mean that these scammers and their money mules got away with it this time, so I was determined to figure out which mules they were using.
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To do this, I pretended to be a victim who'd withdrawn cash and I wanted the instructions for where to send it.
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I was speaking to a guy who called himself Thomas.
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How much did you withdraw?
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£2 ,750.
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Okay, great.
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Now, do you know what needs to be done with this money?
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I told you this money, we would be using it to create your new account.
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Do you remember?
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Yes, that's right.
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The new account, but I don't know what to do next.
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I'll tell you.
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First, you sit down in a quiet place.
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with the money.
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and yes i will tell you some important points Well, yes, I'm at home.
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Sit down with a glass of water.
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The have a glass of water line is straight out of the scammers' playbook.
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It's their way of assuring and calming their victims before the important stage of the scam.
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Just relax.
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First of all, I will be taking down your...
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exact statement.
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on this recorder line that what all happened when you went inside the bank.
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So can you tell me when you stepped inside the bank what all happened?
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Well, I just went to the teller,
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and I just said I want to withdraw £2 ,750 in cash.
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and they said they just said okay they didn't ask me anything and They just give me the cash.
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This recorded line thing is all pure theatre.
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He just wants to stick with the narrative
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that someone in the bank branch must be stealing the money and I was to look out for anything suspicious.
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He then wanted me to deal with wrapping and posting the cash.
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Yeah, you will first collect it in foil and you will
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place the notes on the tin foil and you will wrap the notes up
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into the tin foil and so that the notes will not be visible just for added security okay
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Now once the nodes are covered in the tin foil, you will look for a box.
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Now, what kind of a box?
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I'll explain.
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We're looking for a shoebox.
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or rather we're looking for a chocolate box or a small Christmas card box.
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Any kind of a box where the notes could be put in.
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And then, we will be going ahead and sealing up that box.
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with some cellotates.
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And then we will wrap it up with some Christmas paper, wrapping paper, or any plain brown paper.
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This was my turn for a bit of theatre.
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I made a song and a dance about wrapping supposedly banknotes into tinfoil.
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and made sure that he was able to hear some of this.
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But what I really wanted of course was the Money Mule address
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and it wasn't long before I teased this out of him.
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So it will be Mr. Rakeish, Can you spell it out to me?
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Perfect.
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Now in the next line I want you to write down the address
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and the address would be number five i'll not list the address here
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because sometimes the money mules are unsuspecting
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so this may be the address of a victim instead i reported this address to the police
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okay now on the back side of the parcel, I want you to write down your name That is your name,
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which will be your first name, name and just below that we write down your address and your postcode.
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The fact that he got the victim to write down their own name
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and address on the back of each parcel would prove very useful for me
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because I could see exactly which parcels were being sent and we could trace this And here's an example.
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Because I could see the computer screen of the scammers, I saw them tracking one particular parcel.
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I was able to use this delivery number and report it to the police, who promptly got back to me the same day.
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some information uh really um so we've um identified the sender of
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that package did you supply us with the package ending 666 gulf bravo correct that's right yes
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so we've identified the uh sender of that they're quite far away yeah um
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so we've had to contact a another force to go
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and visit that person and hopefully that's in hand so we can uh legally intercept the package yeah so i
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to disrupt them but of course
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that was only disruption what i really wanted to happen was for the police in Lucknow to actually do something
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and arrest these people And that's where I had the insider help with this case.
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He was able to take video
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and also a note of some of the personal details of the people who were running the scams.
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Not only did I have them on video, but I could see their phone numbers and photographs from WhatsApp.
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I have to abide by YouTube's privacy policies so I can't post their pictures unblurred, but that is to protect this channel and not to protect the scammers.
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There is a link in the description where you can see the unblurred details of some of these scammers.
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But for the police to act, they need the details of someone who's actually had money stolen.
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So in one case, I had to wait
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and watch as the scammers apparently got away with stealing £6 ,000 from one gentleman.
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I was able to get him to recover this money, but nevertheless, because it was actually stolen,
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who was a victim of their scam.
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I sent his details and a lot of the information you've seen already to the police in Lucknow.
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So I had video and audio evidence of the scams happening.
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I had victim statements.
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I had an exact office address.
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and the various phone numbers of the scammers involved.
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I was able to give all this information directly to the police in Lucknow.
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and they promised me they would investigate.
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But rather than investigate what was going on, the very day after I handed all the evidence to the police, the call center went dark.
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The PCs were never switched on again.
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I received no feedback whatsoever from the Lucknow Police, and in fact they went quiet on this.
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I looked online to see if arrests had been made in the area
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but anything I found were definitely not the same groups.
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I am very suspicious that the crime report itself led to these criminals fleeing.
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If you are with the Lucknow Cyber Police or can give me any official updates I'd appreciate it,
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otherwise I have to conclude that these people managed to flee because they were tipped off.
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And that's why it's important for these videos to stay on YouTube.
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I did everything possible to follow the right processes.
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There were crime reports in the UK which were fed to their Indian counterparts.
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There was enough evidence to point the police to the right people, but yet nothing happened.
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So the only thing that I, and other people who do something similar to me can do,
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is to post videos of these scams and highlight the people who run them.
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And we regularly get privacy complaints from the scammers as you can imagine.
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I'm careful to stick to the guidelines but still receive privacy complaints from people who can't be uniquely identified.
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I hope YouTube pay attention to the abuse of this process.
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And finally, if you would like to help me fight scammers, there's a few ways you can do this.
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Firstly, if you're not already subscribed, do hit that subscribe and bell icon.
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Hitting the like button is your way of recommending these videos to other people on YouTube.
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YouTube will often not monetise these sorts of videos, so you can support me on Patreon.
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There's a link here and it's in the description.
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Alternatively, coffee keeps me going, so there's a link to get me a coffee if you so wish.
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I'm on Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn so you can follow me there too.
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Lastly, thanks for all your support and see you on the next one.
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you.
About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice English speaking skills by engaging with a compelling real-life scenario involving bank impersonation scams. Through this activity, you will enhance your listening comprehension and speaking fluency by mimicking authentic dialogues. This lesson not only provides entertaining content but also helps you develop your ability to respond to various situations in English, significantly improving your overall communication skills in real-world contexts.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Impersonation scam: A fraudulent scheme where scammers pretend to be someone else, usually to steal personal information.
- Bank Security Department: The division of a bank that is responsible for preventing fraud and protecting customers' accounts.
- Charges: Transactions deducted from your bank account or credit card.
- Support team: A group of professionals who assist customers with issues or inquiries.
- Relax, calm down: Phrases often used to soothe someone in distress.
- Online banking portal: A secure website where customers can manage their bank accounts.
- Victim: A person who has been deceived or harmed by the actions of a scammer.
Practice Tips
To effectively practice your English speaking skills through this lesson, utilize the shadowing technique, which involves repeating what you hear in the video. Focus on emulating the speed and intonation of the speakers, as this will significantly enhance your fluency. Start by listening to a small section, then pause and repeat aloud, mimicking not just the words but also the emotional tone. This is especially useful given the urgency and anxiety in the dialogues about scams. You can also use a shadowing app to record your voice and compare it with the original to track improvements. Engage in shadow speech to become more comfortable with conversational English, especially when responding in high-stress situations like the ones presented in this scam scenario. Practicing with phrases like "Don't panic" and "Everything is fine" will prepare you for real-life interactions.
Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?
Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.