You receive an email like this, and what do you do? This is actually a true story, with names and basic details changed, of course. It is in fact a scam – an attempt to extract money over the internet. Sceptical as I am, this did not occur to me at first because I know the person well, and both her and my emails checked out correctly. My first response was concern, picturing her distraught alone in some hotel, and...