“Oh, and Arthur?” the message read. “That Enterprise key? It was a backdoor. We’ve had full access for twelve minutes now. We’ve seen everything. Your photos, your tax returns, that folder called ‘New Folder (2).’ For an extra $500, we pretend we didn’t.”

“Excellent,” the man said. “Your activation key is: .”

He never did get that activation key for the real Bit Driver Updater Pro. He suspected, now, that it had never existed at all.

“Just fix it,” Arthur muttered, pulling out his credit card.

The price for “Bit Driver Updater Pro” was $39.99, but there was a limited-time 80% discount ! Final price: $29.99. He entered his details. The screen flashed.

The email arrived on a Tuesday, slipped past Gmail’s filters like a greased eel.