Financial Sextortion (Intermediate Lesson)

ESL/EFL Level: B1/B2 (Intermediate)
Lesson Topics: scams, social media safety, teenagers
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: financial-sextortion-intermediate-lesson-042025.docx

  • Cautionary Note: The video for this lesson describes the suicide of a 16-year-old boy. This is a topic worth discussing but it is a little heavy. Preview the video to ensure it is appropriate with your class.
  • The lesson begins with warm-up questions about social media use.
  • Next students watch a 3:31-minute Facebook video about financial sextortion. The video, told by the victim's mother, describes the sad story of her son being extorted by two Nigerian scammers whom he encountered online. The son ultimately commits suicide and the scammers are brought to justice.
  • The video is followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
  • Next, students review ten vocabulary items by matching them to their corresponding definitions.
  • After vocabulary matching, students form discussion questions with the target vocabulary.
  • The lesson has one debate prompt about whether the Internet is more dangerous than harmful for teenagers.
  • This is followed by two roleplay scenarios. In the first, a mother calls the customer service manager of a social media platform to complain about her son getting defrauded. In the second, a parent tries to convince their teenager to share their social media login credentials so they can monitor their activity.
  • After students review vocabulary, the lesson closes with some final discussion questions.

A lesson on financial sextortion

INTERMEDIATE (B1/B2) Lesson on Social Media Safety

Warm-up-Questions

  1. Which social media sites do you use the most? What do you like and dislike about them?
  2. What do you do to keep your social media profile safe?
  3. A scam is a situation where people try to trick someone to get money from them. Has someone ever tried to scam you online to get money?

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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.

Comprehension Question Answer Key

  1. …
  2. Jordan didn’t respond to her text message that she sent in the morning. After she went on with her day, she sent another text to which Jordan didn't respond. That’s when she realized something was wrong.
  3. The girl had some of the same friends that Jordan did on social media. Also, the girl had a profile picture and was chatting with him (in a way that seemed natural, I assume).
  4. Jordan had sent the girl a private photo of himself. He didn’t want the ‘girl’ to share the photo online, so he sent money.
  5. The judge sentenced the two Nigerian teens to 17.5 years in prison. …

Vocabulary: 1-respond, 2-went through, 3-courtroom, 4-paramedic, 5-located, 6-went on, 7-image, 8-demanded, 9-packed, 10-in common

Collocations 1-a, 2-e, 3-f, 4-d, 5-c, 6-b

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