Clive stood in the gloomy, pigeon-fouled courtyard outside his office and sucked on his cigarette, inhaling the bitter smoke deep into his lungs. He savagely crushed the butt into the drain with a thousand others when he was finished. He breathed in and coughed a little, then went back inside. He really should give it up.

The computer screen on his desk glowed with his favourite screensaver, a flashy XL Sportster Harley Davidson. He decided to check his emails before getting down to some real work. There were two spam messages, offering cut-price viagra and an unasked-for investment share tip. He deleted them. Another was from a colleague, and he saved it in an appropriate folder. There was one more. He peered at the screen. The subject line read: “Want to quit smoking? Instant result! ” He didn’t recognise the sender. Logically he knew it was more spam and should be deleted, but on a whim he opened it. He’d tried acupuncture, hypnosis, patches; everything in fact except actually stopping smoking. This deal, opening up on his screen as if it had been waiting for him, offered a one hundred percent success rate. Instant result.

Okay, he said to himself. What is it? Is it a tape, a book, a pill? What is it? The site didn’t say. So it’s some magic potion, he thought, and they don’t tell you what until you’ve paid up front. Then you get some useless advice and a pill or something. He didn’t like cheats, and the web was annoyingly full of spurious offers of all sorts of things. Normally he deleted emails like this immediately. He scrolled down to the bottom of the screen. What did this mystery item cost? He clicked on “product details” and was interested to see the words: “This product is virtually free to all smokers.” Virtually? What did that mean? He clicked on the order form, gave his email address and details again and received an almost immediate response.

“All you have to do is to accept the offer. Click here if you agree to accept. Nothing further is required.’ Odd language, he thought. Maybe this was a scam and he was downloading a virus at this very moment. The thought stopped him in his tracks and he logged off and ran a virus check on the message. Nothing.

Okay, he thought, I’ll go for it. What have I got to lose? He clicked on “accept” and pressed the enter key.