In less than a fortnight I turned down £2 million

Bryan Forbes is drawn into a cyberspace scam by an indignant ‘happily married’ woman who invites him to Madrid to arrange a princely payout

It all began when an email greeted me one morning with ‘Dear Esteemed Winner, we are pleased to inform you of the result of the Fatelgordo International Promotions Program. Your email address was attached to the winning number 08 15 30 31 34 43 40 and you have therefore been approved for a lump-sum payout of £685,000.’ The shock of the amount almost started me smoking again. The message included the name and email address of the claims officer, a Mrs Helen Illic, at Teal Consulting Limited, London. It all seemed authentic and by now I had mentally begun to work out how I would distribute the money among my nearest and dearest. Then a small, still voice of caution kicked in. I searched for Teal on the internet and there is a company trading under that name although nothing on their website denoted they were connected to a Spanish lottery. I decided to test the water — after all, if it was genuine I’d feel a complete wally if I turned down £685,000.

I keyed in Mrs Illic’s email address. She responded with alacrity and thus began a week of cat-and-mouse exchanges. The language of her replies was often ungrammatical and early in the game she told me that ‘the diplomat was flown out to America with your prize using the late nite [sic] flight. Your cash prize totally [sic] US$1,370,000.’

I replied: ‘Why did this so-called diplomat fly to America with my prize money when I live in England? Yesterday you told me of a prize in pounds and for a different amount, so my instinct tells me something is not right.