Shadowing Practice: Behind the scenes of an operation targeting online scammers | BBC News - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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How much did you give him?
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How much did you give him?
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So, although...
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It was over 80,000, through that one bank account, yeah.
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80,000 pounds?
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Yeah, just over 80,000.
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If you thought fraud wasn't a priority for the police,
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this might be a surprise.
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So this operation is targeting the industry which enables fraudsters to operate.
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The criminals who provide other criminals with bank details,
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but also technical support and even training in how to steal money from unsuspecting victims.
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In the very early hours,
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two dozen officers are heading for a flat in South London.
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An arrest.
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He's suspected of selling personal financial information to scammers.
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And police abroad, especially Nigeria, are also making arrests.
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Bank and credit card fraud is up 15%,
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a major headache for police forces under pressure.
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The scale of fraud and the victimisation across the public and our communities is huge.
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People might not know, but there's a whole ecosystem out there that fraudsters are actively involved in,
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where they will buy and sell tradecraft.
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They will exchange information with each other,
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compromise data, credit card numbers, and tradecraft and scripts.
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And that really is where a lot of fraudsters will meet and learn their trade.
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So by focusing on those groups,
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it enables us to disrupt that whole ecosystem.
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The police can't do it all.
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Banks have set up their own team to track fraudsters.
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What we do is fight on their behalf in the shadows.
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BBC News was given exclusive access to the crack team of experts scouring the internet for scammers.
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We are relentlessly focused on the threats.
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We're always watching, we're always hunting for them on the dark web.
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I understand when a victim loses money that it's very distressing and the banks will respond to that.
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They respond to that very quickly and they've dedicated teams for doing so.
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The strategy is to hit the criminals before,
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during and after the fraud.
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Here they say it takes a chain of events for criminals to scam you out of your money.
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They prepare by researching what they're going to do,
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often learning from other criminals.
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They develop online resources, building or even buying fake bank websites.
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They use social engineering, dodgy text messages often,
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to trick you into paying up.
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Then your account has been compromised.
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But the crucial stage for the criminals is called the cash-out.
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These experts are from military intelligence,
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the police, cyber security companies.
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Investigators like Kate, not her real name,
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scoured data from the banks and scraped from chat rooms where anonymous scammers discuss their methods.
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When you go through the data,
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what are you looking for?
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That golden nugget, that piece of information that will help perhaps identify a network,
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a criminal service service or even a criminal operation.
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I find it hugely frustrating that these criminals are so callous and brazen about,
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there's no consideration for the victim.
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Kirsty has a difficult story to tell about herself,
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about how she met a man called Patrick on a dating site she thought from a fake profile was British.
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And he was a handsome man,
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he looked smart and I was drawn to him And I felt a connection with him.
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His words were hello and they're the five letters that have changed my life.
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And he wasn't pushy at the start?
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No, absolutely not, no. He built a rapport with me.
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There was no rush, so not like what you hear now,
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the acting haste, everything's quickly moved, love bombing.
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It wasn't like that at the beginning for me built a rapport,
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he explained about things in his childhood,
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we spoke about places where he'd lived,
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he spoke about places where I'd lived,
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so there was no real sense that this was going the wrong way for me.
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There was no red flags.
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You know, I was excited to get a message from him,
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I was excited to speak to him on the phone,
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and then he turned around and he said he'd been in an accident.
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Now, I'm the kind of person that would help anyone,
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even if I was on death's door myself.
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I pride myself on that.
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And when he said that,
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I just wanted to help him.
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And he asked me then,
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can you transfer some money,
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because I've not done the business deal and I need to finish that,
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or I'm going to be in hospital and I'm going to be out of pocket.
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How much did you give him?
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So, although it was over 80,000 through that one bank account, yeah.
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80,000 pounds?
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Yeah, just over 80,000.
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You completely trusted him, Kirsty, didn't you?
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Yeah, I did, yeah.
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Because people will hear this story and they'll think...
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Why did she do that?
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And that's why we need to make people fully aware of what this does
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and the coercion and the manipulation that you go under.
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The man whose images were stolen by the scammer to create Patrick is actually Jay,
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a former model with a family of his own.
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In a way, he's a victim too.
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Yeah, I mean, I look back,
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I'm in hospital, look at that.
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I've been contacted by that image before.
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That's not, that's just, I'm looking now and it's me taking a picture of waking up at 10 in the morning,
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having a lazy day.
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It's me in bed saying I'm ready to go out but I wanted to go back to bed.
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It was me eating a cake.
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These are all images of me trying to show my friends,
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just being a normal guy.
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You feel like someone's invaded your privacy and then you kind of worry about your reputation.
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I've worked quite hard with my modelling career,
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with how we're building our fitness business,
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how my mum and dad have brought me up with the disciplines and manners.
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You just think, oh gosh,
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what are people going This is a whole of society problem and we are reacting with a whole of society solution.
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We're providing law enforcement a force multiplier to enable their operations to hit harder,
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faster with less risk.
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The strategy has resulted in more than 500 arrests so far.
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But not as far as anyone knows Patrick.
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Kirstie's fraudster kept up the act right to the end.
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And then he's rung me up after I've been to the police station
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and he's saying how much he loved me and that he was sorry and thinking,
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how could you possibly be sorry if you're doing that?
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And he just kept saying it and then all of a sudden he just turned round and said,
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Kirsty, I've been in an accident.
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He hadn't stopped?
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No. And I threw the phone against that wall and they're still marking it now to this day,
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which I look at regularly, to remind myself.
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She's now rebuilding her florist business and her life,
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talking openly about what happened.
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She hopes Patrick will be caught.
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We, we are the first public presentation to the group.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice your English speaking skills by engaging with a fascinating BBC News video that uncovers the hidden world of online scammers and the operations targeting them. The vocabulary and phrases you will encounter in the video will enhance your comprehension of the topic while providing you with the tools needed to discuss complex themes such as crime, fraud, and cybersecurity. By shadowing the speakers in the video, you'll not only improve your pronunciation and fluency but also gain insights into real-world issues impacting society.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- fraud: illegal activities aimed at deceiving others for financial gain.
- personal financial information: sensitive data related to an individual's finances.
- ecosystem: a complex network of interconnected elements; in this case, the network of criminals.
- cash-out: the process by which criminals access and withdraw money from compromised accounts.
- social engineering: manipulating people into divulging confidential information.
- cybersecurity: the practice of protecting networks and systems from digital attacks.
- tradecraft: the techniques and skills used in espionage or criminal activities.
Practice Tips
To make the most of your English speaking practice, consider using a shadowing app while watching the video. Follow these tips:
- Start by watching the video once without pausing to understand the context. Pay attention to the tone, speed, and pronunciation of the speakers.
- On your second viewing, use the shadowing technique: play a segment of the video and immediately repeat what you hear. Focus on mimicking the intonation and stress patterns of the speakers.
- Since the video features discussions on serious topics, try to match the somber tone when shadowing. This will help you convey the gravity of the subject matter in your own speech.
- For challenging phrases, pause and practice them until you feel comfortable, then rejoin the video.
- After shadowing, try summarizing what you've learned about online scams. This helps reinforce vocabulary and allows you to speak on the subject with confidence.
Utilizing these techniques while learning with YouTube will greatly benefit your ability to communicate complex ideas, preparing you for engaging conversations in English. Immerse yourself in the content with the shadowspeak method and elevate your language skills to new heights.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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