The fantastic story of a 20-something Bristolian who decided to get his own back on an internet fraudster by sending them the entire works of William Shakespeare across almost 30,000 text messages caught my attention this week for several reasons. Firstly, exacting revenge on a crook in 160 character chunks was a very unique response, and secondly – just how many of us have been suckered by online scams?

Young Edd Joseph was relatively fortunate, losing just £80 when trying to buy a cut-price games console online. He chose to ignore the rules of the site he purchased the item through to get what he believed was a quick sale. Instead it voided the website’s terms and conditions which meant they would not refund him. He was also informed by the police it was unlikely they would be able to track down the crook.

Online crime has become the UK’s fastest-growing criminal activity, now costing our economy £30bn a year. Much of that money is insured by businesses, but around 10 per cent comes directly from pockets of people like you and me who are unlikely to ever get any of it back.

I’m still not sure what makes people more likely to be victims of crime online. My dear old Dad equipped me with a healthy dollop of caution, which leads me to believe that the things that seem too good to be true often are. Therefore, I’m left scratching my head when I hear of people far wiser than me being exploited by online scammers.

Steve recently lost around £150, in the pursuit of a “bargain” iPad, some £50 cheaper than the going rate. He placed a bid on the item online, from a seller with zero feedback or eBay history. Before the auction was due to end, he got an email from the seller, suggesting a cash payment would close the auction early, and because he wouldn’t pay fees the seller would knock another £10 off. Steve transferred the cash and waited, and waited, and waited. No iPad ever arrived.

On contacting eBay, he was correctly told it wasn’t their problem. It’s the smaller fraudulent transactions like this and Edd’s that continue fuelling the rise of online crime. In the time it took you to read this column, around £500K worth of online fraud has happened in the UK and, in Derby, a con artist has received 20 or so Shakespearean text messages.