Spam emails supposedly from Nigerian princes with fortunes in Swiss bank accounts, or beautiful Russian brides desperate to meet us are nothing unusual.
Most of us delete them without reading them – but Scottish author Neil Forsyth had a different idea.
Curious to find out just how desperate the spammers were for cash, he struck up email conversations with the senders.
After creating his own character called Bob Servant, he was soon dealing with unsuspecting con artists around the globe. He led them on with bizarre requests and surreal stories.
The resulting book – Delete This at Your Peril – won fans ranging from rock band Snow Patrol to writer Irvine Welsh.
Now a follow-up has been released and Hollwood star Brian Cox is playing the comic creation on the radio.