Begging letter

The illustrated email arrived the other day, ostensibly from a chap with whom I had had a short email exchange a few days previous, nothing more. One assumes attempted theft.

I am perhaps less vulnerable to pleas of this sort than I was, having been taken for £20 or so more than once by sob-stories outside Vauxhall station on the the way to work. I remember on one particular occasion being taken in - taken on? - by a very plausibly battered young lady, only to see the same lady perform the same routine on someone else the following morning. It was a good act, more or less worth the £20, but it was careless of her not to keep an eye out for previous clients.

Nevertheless, I retain a worry that it might be true and I would rather spend £20 than run the risk that it was - but I suspect that this punter was after rather more than £20 and I wouldn't go to £50.