Go to Hell, scammers!

SIR: The article on Dante by A N Wilson (September issue) prompts an immediate response to his lasting relevance in our troubled times. One thing I have retained from studies long ago is Dante’s distinction in the Divine Comedy between malizia and frode in the treatment of criminals in the Inferno.

There it is related that those guilty of the latter – fraudsters of all ilk: cheats, con men and tricksters – were singled out to be roasted in a much hotter circle of Hell than the former, mere murderers, rapists and the like.

As a victim of an online scam, subsequently enlisting as a trading standards monitor, I delight in the thought that a similar severity might be meted out to the woefully few scammers who don’t get away with it.

Given the opportunity, I’ve delighted in tutoring Dante to the police dealing with my own misfortune. Michael Rand Hoare, London SW17