How to spot a scam

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are to:

• – learn how to identify and respond to potential scams while developing critical thinking skills and suspicious situation awareness;
• – practice discussion skills using provided phrases, gap-fill exercises, reading comprehension, and polite but firm English responses;
• – watch a video about red flags that every scam has and analyze scammer dialogue patterns through interactive exercises.

In this B2-level lesson plan, students learn how to identify and respond to potential scams through various interactive exercises and discussions. The focus is on developing critical thinking skills while practicing polite but firm English responses to suspicious situations.

Warm-up 

Students read the dialogue between a scammer and a potential victim and discuss the situation using provided expressions.

Video 

Students watch an informative video titled “Every scam has one of these red flags.” After viewing, they complete a matching exercise connecting sentence beginnings with appropriate endings based on the video content.

Exercises 

Using provided phrases, students discuss suspicious situations with their teacher. In the second exercise, students read what a scammer says to potential victims and complete the gaps in the sentences. Lastly, they choose the best response for each described scam attempt.

Reading 

Students read a text about how to spot a scam and answer questions for reading comprehension.

Discussion 

Students discuss the different scam scenarios with their teacher using provided phrases.