Spectator competition winners: Franz Kafka goes phishing

The latest challenge was to submit a scam letter ghostwritten by a well-known author, living or dead. Falling for a scam is costly and tedious (and more easily done than you might think), but the comedian James Veitch found a silver lining when he decided to en-gage with his persecutors: the ensuing correspondence — lengthy, labyrinthine and often hilarious — went on to form the basis of a popular TED talk and book. It was a tricky assignment, judging by the smallish postbag, but you made some clever choices of author whose prose style lent itself well to the art of phishing: poor spelling (Molesworth via Geoffrey Willans); apparently outlandish claims (Kafka). The winners, printed below, earn £25 each.

Bill Greenwell/Franz Kafka Dear Supporter of Justice

Someone has been telling lies about Mr. A. He has been taken in, to his great exas-peration, for questioning on a subject about which he knows nothing. He had intend-ed to go out in the evening — despite the snow falling, it was a pleasant walk — when his freedom was arbitrarily curtailed.