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One baffling online scam \u2013 involving a \xa3138 dehumidifier \u2013 and a humiliated BBC producer who will not rest until she has a return address for it.

January 2024. Polly Weston\u2019s toddler has a terrible cough, no one in the house is getting any sleep, and, as is traditional for Bristol Victorian Terraces, her house has a lot of damp patches. So she decides to invest in a dehumidifier.

A very convincing review online, by a real consumer journalist called Luke Edwards, recommends one company.

The company's sleek website reads \u201cDewett UK \u2013 Better Air, Better Life.\u201d

Sold. She orders one for \xa3138\u2026 Then it begins.

Luke, it turns out, had his identity stolen. Day after day he receives the same desperate phone calls from people across Britain who have fallen victim to his \u201cbyline\u201d. The story is always the same. Once the dehumidifier arrives, it doesn\u2019t work, and you can\u2019t return it \u2013 Dewett will not give you a return address. It's come from China, they say, and there is no point in you sending it back. The email exchanges become increasingly wild.

But what starts out as the story of one BBC producer, on a vendetta to find a return address (and to prove, despite being duped, she\u2019s still a good journalist)\u2026 will take us to corners of the world we never could have predicted. It might just end in us accidentally blowing the lid on something much, much bigger...

Produced and presented by Polly Weston\nA BBC Audio Bristol production