Lisa’s bad day

Predict: How do you think Lisa’s bag got stolen? Listen once/twice check in pairs.

Listen again and answer the questions:

1. Where was Lisa? In a café

2. What did the couple ask her to do? Take a photo of them
3. What happened while she was distracted? Someone stole her bag

Predict: What did she do next?

Listen again and answer the questions:

1. Who did she speak to? A man on the next table

2. What did the man ask her? Which bank she was with
3. What did the man do? Gave her a phone number and lent her his phone

Predict: What will happen next? What would you do? Would you trust the guy?

Listen again and answer the questions:

1. How was Lisa feeling? In a panic, grateful

2. Why did Lisa think the phone number was genuine? Sounds of call centre
3. What did the woman ask Lisa to do? Key her PIN into the phone

Predict: What do you think will happen next?

Listen again and answer the questions:

1. Why does Jeff say it’s a double scam? They got her bag and bank details
2. How will the man get Lisa’s PIN number? From the phone

Predict: Who do you think stole the bag?

Listen again and answer the questions:

1. Why doesn’t she think it was the couple? She was watching them
2. Who does she think stole the bag? The man
3. What does she think happened to the bag after it was stolen? He hid it or gave it to a
member of his gang.

Discussion (with Eli)

1. What is your opinion of Lisa? Why did she fall for the scam?
2. What do you think of the scam? Would you fall for it?
3. What would you do in this situation?
4. Have any of your friends or family been scammed?
5. Have you ever been scammed?
6. What scams have you heard about in the news?
Transcript
Lisa: So what happened was, I was sitting in a café and this young couple – they looked like tourists –
asked me to take a photo of them . And I took the photo, they thanked me and left and then I looked
at my seat and realised my handbag had gone, with my mobile, wallet, credit card, keys everything.

Jeff: No! What did you do?

Lisa: Well, there was a guy on the next table and he saw I was really upset and I explained about the
bag and he asked me which bank I was with and he said he worked for that bank and gave me a
phone number and let me use his mobile to phone them and stop my credit card.

Jeff: And you believed him?

Lisa: Yeah, I mean I was in a real panic. I was really grateful for his help. Anyway, I phoned the
number and talked to a woman from “the bank” and gave her my name and address and credit card
number.

Jeff: She sounded genuine?

Lisa: Yeah, completely. I could hear the sounds of the call centre behind her. And she asked me to
key in my PIN on the phone and she said they’d stop my card.

Jeff: Wow. So it was a double scam. They got your bag and your bank account details.

Lisa: Yeah, unfortunately. Of course, the guy could get my PIN from his phone.

Jeff: So who actually took your bag?

Lisa: Well, it must have been stolen when I wasn’t looking.

Jeff: Right.

Lisa: So it can’t have been the young couple because I was looking at them all the time I was taking
the photo. Their job was just to distract me.

Jeff: Was it the guy at the next table, then?

Lisa: I think so. He must have taken my bag when I wasn’t looking. Then he could have hidden it in
his case or he might have given it to another member of the gang.

Jeff: And then he gave you a fake number.

Lisa: Yeah, and they must have used a recording of a call centre so that it sounded like the real bank.