User:Andre Castro/2/thesis/draft

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Introduction

(context)

Spam, once only a brand of spiced canned meat, turned into a synonym for unsolicited email, sent to large number of addresses, with the underlying intention of extorting money through a convincing narrative or sell products such as Rolex replicas or Viagra pills to their recipients. Spam is essential distasteful advertising that arrives in our mailboxes, in large quantities. It's electronic junk destined to receive a click from its the recycling-bin icon and vanish. But as much it is distasteful and unsolicited it also fascinating for many. Perhaps as result of its colossal volume, or its diversity, comprising sub-genres are as varied as medical spam (Barron 2006), hoaxes (Heyd 2008), spam lit(Gallix 2008), dating invitations, or fraud emails. And not to mention the mediums through which spam is communicate, ranging from email, blog comments (Thomason 2007), community websites like Craigslist (Craigslist 2012), and Wikipedia (Wikipedia 2013). The attention spam generates is far beyond what one would expect, specially after going through the tedious task of cleaning our email client of all its unsolicited emails. Spam takes online security experts, legislators, and computer scientist to work on preventing spam to reach its final destination, common individuals to form and feed online forums alerting against possible scams received by email, slightly less-common individuals to architect and apply elaborate plans to unmask spam schemes, anthropologists to investigate who, where, and under what conditions are at the origin of spam (Burell 2012), linguists to speculate on the grammatical anomalies contained in spam (Blommaert 2005, Barron 2006), artist to make it a playground full of possibilities, and most of us, who rely on email to communicate, to become its readers, and respond with amusement, curiosity, boredom, or wonder.


(field of study)

It is my intention, to use this discussion to transmit the reader a detailed view on the sub-genre of spam entitled 419 fraud email, and the repertoire of stories and characters that inhabit the 419s universe. 419s derive their name from the Nigerian law code prohibiting the impersonation of state's officials. As analog predecessors of current 419s - letters and faxes - came initially from Nigeria and employed the country's political figures as their posing authors, this sub-genre of spam got its current designation. In these emails the posing author proposes the recipient to take part in a highly lucrative business. Invariably they provide an explanation as for the money's origin and for their inability to get hold of it, therefore requesting the reader's cooperation. These are often rich, colorful, and often absurd stories, which mix promiscuously with reality. Not only I find them appealing stories, but even more fascinating as scam strategies. Isn't there a more direct way of stealing money from individuals than going through the efforts of writing transmitting a convincing story, in order to do so? Not to mention the constant and easily identifiable set of patterns present in 419s doesn't seem to provide the most effective scam strategy. Although reoccurrences happening between different 419s specimens might not be a very effective choice for fraud purposes, it definitely brings consistency and character of this para-literary genre. And I suspect that such repetitive quality might be one of the reasons behind the general interest and attention devoted to spam. Putting aside whether my suspicion is right or wrong, I would like to ask why is repetition so ubiquitous to spam? The straight-forward and easy answer would state that spam is a product of an incessant plagiary practice, which allows for a large number of messages to be constructed in a short amount of time. But couldn't it also be argued that reoccurrences, repetitions, and redundancies are so omnipresent and ingrained in western mass culture, that spam has simply incorporated them as an attention grabbing strategy?


(discussion)

I will be discussing these two possible explanations for the high frequency of repetitions and redundancies that confronts us while reading 419 fraud emails. On the one hand I will establish a correlation between the forms of reocurrence detected on 419s fraud emails and those prevalent in popular culture products. On the other hand, I will put forward a more possible and down-to-earth explanation, based upon the restrictions and costly access to an Internet connection and a computer in some parts of the globe commonly associated with 419s, making the appropriation of an already existing, well-written, and convincing message a cheaper and safer choice. In order to construct my argument and defend each side I will rely upon works of literary criticism within the realms of structuralism and semiotics that investigate the repetitive aspects within product of mass-culture, such as Vladímir Propp's mapping of Russian fairy-tales into plot formulas, Umberto Eco's reading of James Bond novels, and John Cawelti analysis of crime novels; And works dedicated to 419s text analysis by Jan Blommaert and Harvey Glickman, as well the anthropological field-work developed by Jenna Burrell within the population of young spammers in Ghana's Accra. Lastly, as tangible evidence of the subject discussed I will use examples included in a database of 419 email, which I have been developing and compiling as a tool for my research. Once both sides have been properly explored I expect to be in position to assess whether repetition, redundancies and the formulaic nature are the side-product of time-saving mechanisms used to compose the 419s fraud message or whether its authors are cleverly exploring our desire to be told known and predictable stories.

Methodology

419s' archive

Must of the email examples employed throughout this thesis will can be found at http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam . This URL holds a collection of 419s I have been collecting since November 2012. Beginning in December 2012, I have been compiling and organizing the collected emails under this archive. Although still in development, the archive has function as an important tool in my research process. Currently the archive holds a collection of circa 50 emails. Each email entry includes, the email body, author's name, email subject, unique url. Each entry is also provided with a color code meant to identify the different parts present within the email body, however a more detailed explanation will follow in the repetition section. The archive is organized around the stock character posing as the author of emails. Each of these archetypal figures is at the epicenter of a constellation of emails, so one can browse all the emails present in the collection which have been written by soldiers, or sick widows, or politicians. The process of assembling the emails that form part of the database begins with begins with the arrival of one email on to my email account, often via some friend aware of my interest in spam, or a legitimate spam. A quick reading allows me to identify if I am dealing with a 419, if that is the case I will look further on to whom poses as the author of the email, say it is a soldier, under then name David Joseph; The next move consist in making a Google search on the terms "419 fraud David Joseph" and invariably I end up in one of the fraud alert website such as 419scam.org, 419.bittenus.com, antifraudintl.org or scamdex.com and next to David Joseph email lay dozens of other email similar emails in which a British or American soldier proposes a highly lucrative deal. I then start adding those found emails to the database, identifying their posing author under the soldier category. When introducing an email to the archive I will try that the date refers to the moment when the email was originally received. I cases found email, like the previously described case, the assigned date will try to respect the date when the email originally arrived in its recipient's inbox. 

[+ ON METHODOLOGY]


Four-One-Nines

anatomy and origin of the 419s

Harvey Glickman (2005) in the article The Nigerian "419" Advance Fee Fraud summarizes 419s as emails, but also faxes, and letters that make reference to a large sum of money held in an African bank account or other safe location. The owner of this sum is often dead. The sender asks the recipient's collaboration in transferring the frozen funds to a foreign account, so that the money becomes accessible. As a reward for the recipient's collaboration a fraction of the total sum will be given to him. Victims who fall for this telltale are normally asked to provide their personal details, bank name and account number early on, such information is used in credit card applications or checks forgeries. If the recipient is eager to take part in the proposed deal he will, at later stage be requested to transfer money to the sender's account, under the excuse that a lawyer needs to be payed to do the necessary paper work, an official has to be bribed to set the process rolling, or identity marks be removed from banknotes. Victims, like gambles, struggle to admit they are loosing money, and go on complying with these requests, in hope that their guaranteed profit will appear. Even when convinced that they have fallen for a scam victims are deterred from denouncing it, as they are aware of the illegal contours of the business they joined (Glickman, pp.465-469). 

[INCLUDE FLOWCHART OF THE SCHEME BEHIND 419 ]


[distinguish from hoax]

A very similar spam genre is the email hoax ... 

[define Email hoax - show how differs from 419s]


[narratives genre]

Jan Blommaert's article Making Millions: English indexicality and fraud (2005) is an example of the confusion between 419s and spam hoaxes. Although his article is dedicated exclusively to 419s, he classifies them as "e-mail spam hoax message[s]" (ibid, p.2). Despite this inconsistency Blommaert's provides a well informed sociolinguistic analysis of the 419s, and suggests a typology that I believe to be useful to understand the specificity of the 419s. Blommaert distinguishes two main groups: administrative-formal genres and narrative genres. The administrative genres comprises lottery reward messages, which inform the reader about his prize and are marked by a formal and administrative lingo. The narrative genres tend towards a more personal approach, involving the establishment of a bond between reader and writer (ibid, p.9). I have decided to relegate from my research the administrative genre, and opt only for the narrative one, as the later originates more elaborate texts, which seek to seduce of the reader, and, as previously mentioned, elaborate a story justifying the appearance of the money. Within the narrative genre Blommaert distinguishes three sub-categories: dormant accounts, rescue operations, and charity. In all of them the addressee is asked to transfer money to a foreign bank account, what changes is the money origin and reason behind the writer's request. In dormant accounts a banker or assurance officer finds unclaimed funds from a deceased client; In the rescue operations the reader is asked to assist the posing writer, by rescuing his funds, since he has found himself in trouble in his home country; Lastly charity emails are written by a supposedly religious and wealthy author, nearing his last days and wanting to donate his capital to charity. In each one of these sub-categories one or more characters are positioned as the writer. The character assigned that role is not only, as was already mentioned, the organizing principal behind the 419s database, but will also be subject of a later section of this thesis.


[origin of 419s]

The handle "419" comes from Nigerian Criminal Code preventing the impersonation of official entities for financial gains (Glickman 2005, p.461). Although this money extorting of narrative dates back a few centuries to what is known as the Spanish Prisoner scheme. In this early form of scam a rich merchant would be told about the misfortunes of a sequestered child and his father, whom had been imprisoned in a Spanish prison. The fraud victim would be asked to pay for their release, in which case he would receive a larger sum as reward. Fast-forwarding to the Twentieth Century, the same scheme was found to be gaining popularity during in the 1970s and 1980s Nigeria. Initial using letters, later faxes, email became the common medium, adopted to launch 419s. Although 419s had were initially came from Nigeria, and are still associated with this country, they are no longer confined to it. 419s production has been located in other African nations, and countries such as Singapore, Russia, and Honk-Kong (ibid pp.472-473). The origin of 419s in Nigeria is not fortuitous. As Jenna Burrell (2012) indicates the scenarios described are based on the corrupt activities carried out by Nigeria's 1980s and 1990s military governments. Still today one might receive an email from a Nigerian official. Such is the case with the former House of Representatives Speaker of Nigeria Dimeji Bankole, who according to BBC(2011) in 2011 was arrested under the accusation of deviating $65m of government funds, notwithstanding we might receive his emails, such as the following specimen: 

From: "Hon. Dimeji Bankole" <info@dimejibankole.com>
Reply-To: hondimejibankole0@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:20:18 -0300
Subject: Business Proposal

Dear Sir,
I am the former speaker National House of Representative in the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and My Name is Hon. Dimeji Bankole. I am in position of
USD 12M which i intend to invest in Real Estate in your country. I am
looking for a reliable person or company that will help me to invest this
money on my behalf. Kindly update me if you can represent my interest in
your Country. Reply to my personal email address:
hondimejibankole0@yahoo.com
Thanks for your anticipated cooperation.
Best regards,
Hon. Dimeji Bankole

(http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/102) 

[ADD ANOTHER SOURCE TO SPANISH PRISONER TALE] 
[ADD ANOTHER SOURCE TO NIGERIAN POLITICAL CONTEXT ]



REPETITIONS

(kones example)

When I began working on expanding my database I was struck by a curious email, or are rather say, a series of them. I came across an email whose author posed as Miss Kones, the daughter of Kipkalya Kiprono Kones, Kenyan's former roads' minister who died in plane accident. The story was a typical example of 419 rescue operation email. The young and seductive daughter teases the reader to help her transfer the funds intended for her, according to her father's will, before her mean stepmother takes control of all her late-husband's possessions. On searching for emails telling a similar story I was confronted not by a similar, but the very same story, and the same posing character, but under a different first names. I found emails from Aminali, Cindy, Nora, Samira, Fatima, Susan, Amina, Fatima, Dalila, Esther, Joy, and Mercy. Quite a few daughters even for wealthy man. This incessant appropriation of the same story and characters made me look further into it. Although, appearing as the same text, there was still variations and differences among the emails. So that brought me to ask what is common to the majority of 419s. 

[DEVELOP/EDIT, SO IT CROSSES-OVER TO CHARACTERS ]

(what forms of repetition?)

Reoccurrences taking place in 419s can be detect at the level of the structural organization, the characters posing as the author of the message and the events described.

characters

[TO BE WRITTEN]


Being 419s characterized by their ever-changing nature, continuously trying to find new teasing narratives to lure, the sources of money keep on changing. However, a strong trend detected, in which has its origin in the fortunes of wealthy deceased person. Among the the many described sources we find Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, the Porsche tuning company's CEO, Uwe Gemballa, or Christian Eich, a German engineer victim of the Concorde crash on June 25th 2000 in Paris. As for the person who poses as author of the email, the repertoire includes bankers and insurance agents, British and American soldiers, relatives to deceased politicians, and rich but fatally ill widows, which will be given a more detailed description in the part dedicated to the 419s characters.


The collection of 419s is organized according to characters featuring as the posing writer of the emails. This was mainly informed by the fixed number of characters that featured in the 419 that I received or found. I came across rich daughters, soldiers, banker and insurance officers, rich but ill widows, [++]. It is surprising, given the large number of 419s in circulation, how small the number of characters given the role of writer can be found. Why am I not receiving any emails from plumbers or cooks - the common folk? They too might face complicated situations in their lives that require my assistance, they too might from time to time inherit a small fortune. Why are only these very SPECIFIC [? a better description] characters the ones who write the 419s? 

[FIND HOW CAN BE THE CHARACTERS CLASSIFIED]
[WHAT IS COMMON TO THEM]

[We have 2 constant elements: the structure and the character]

structure

In what concerns its structure, 419s seem to follow what Jan Blommaert (2005) describes as a generic blueprint, consisting of terms of address, apology and introduction, micro-narrative on the origin of the money, reassurances convincing the reader on the writer's sincerity, requests for the reader's confidentiality, and lastly the closing formula. This form of narrative structure dissection has a processor in the work of Russian folklorist Vladímir Propp. Intending to establish a morphology of Russian folktales, a sort of list of ingredients and the sequence in which they enter the elaboration of a Russian fairy-tale, Propp proposed a morphological analyses of Russian fairy tales according to "the functions of its dramatis personae"(1929 p.7). In other words, the study focuses on the what action is performed, and not on who performs it or how is performed, as different "characters of a tale, however varied they may be, often perform the same action. The actual means of the realization of functions can vary, and as such, it is a variable... But the function, as such, is a constant" (ibid p.8). Propp research revealed that, despite their diversity, Russian fairy-tales only entail thirty-one functions. Such system of fixed and finite elements, combined with interchangeable and numerous characters provides the tale with its "multiformity, picturesqueness, and color, and on the other hand, its no less striking uniformity, its repetition" (Propp 1926, p.8).

Blommaert argues this fixed structure, in his words blueprint, endows the messages with structural stability, while opening up the possibility for the materialization of very diverse narratives (2005 pp. 11-18). When super-imposing Blommaert's described blueprint against the 419s I have collected has revealed to match, therefore I have adopted Blommart's blueprint to query the structure of the collected 419s, although making a slight changes in the terms. I have decided upon salutation, writer's introduction, reason why are you receiving this email, the money narrative, invitation for business, request for confidentiality, and closing, so that they would become more self-explanatory, but the event taking place within each section is essentially the same. Each part is identified within the database through the color assigned to its background. In the majority of cases the 419s structure follows the sequence: salutation, writer's introduction, reason why are you receiving this email, the money narrative, invitation for business, request for confidentiality, and closing. However the permutation of the writer's introduction for the reason why are you receiving this email is common. Usually following those two moments the writer's introduction marks a pivotal moment in the email, as who the writing character happens to be, will set both the stylistic conventions in which the email is written, as well as the money narrative that will follow. Like the banker from ABSA Bank in Johanessbourg who presents his contacts in the closing formular, as one would have expected from a bank official: 

Yours Faithfully,
Mr Peter Hayman
ABSA Bank
Johanessbourg,
South Africa.
Tel+27832489498

(http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/63 )

Or in the case of a rich but fatally ill Mrs Maria Johnson (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/41), who presents herself as a converted Christian, and consequently affirms her faith numerous times in the email, such as "Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ", "Propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained", or "Yours in Christ". These, like the banker's contacts are what Jan Blommaert refers to indexical argumentation, a strategy aimed at gaining the reader's trust through "the deployment of generic and stylistic features that lock into existing, recognizable and presupposable indexical values" (2005 p.18).


The money narrative entails both an explanation to both the money origin, as for the impediment preventing the writer to get hold of the money. Such is the case of Sgt. John Samuel (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/71) who explains how "[s]ome money in various currencies were discovered in a room at a farm house near one of Osama Bin Laden's old house in Kabul-Afghanistan during a rescue operation", in which he took part. Now that both him and Col. William E. Cole decided to keep and share the money, which is not permitted, Sgt. John Samuel needs someone who is willing to keep in safe place that money. Or Aminali Kones (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/91) who father has died in plane crash, but before hand he has "deposited huge amount of money in one security company in Togo". Unfortunately Aminali finds out she can only checkout the money when "married or present a trustee who will help me and invest the money overseas". To make matter worse both Aminali stepmother and uncle conspired and sold he father's properties leaving nothing for her.


An invitation for business follows. This is another important moment, where the reader is enticed to take part in this profitable business. Aminali Kones writes 

The amount is (€5.2 Euros) Five Million Two Hundred Thousand Euros ... You will also help me to place the money in a more profitable business venture in your Country ... It is my intention to compensate you with 30% of the total money for your services and the balance shall be my capital in your establishment. As soon as I receive your positive response showing your interest I will put things into action immediately.

Often instructions are also given to the reader about how to proceed with the deal, such as Sgt. Barry Kirkland indications: 

contact Mr. Reuben Asiedu, a local farmer i met in Africa during one of our peace keeping missions, He is reliable/trust-worthy, He'll assist you legally set up a Charity in his country Ghana in your name and immediately this is done, you'll receive an anonymous payment of $47,000000.00 in three installments in the charity's account, 25% goes for the charity, 50% is to be wired to another account that will be provided you, 15% is your compensation and 10% for miscellaneous expenses through out the deal.

(http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/100)

The reader is also often reassured of the risk-free nature and liability of this deal, "I assure you that this transaction is 100% risks free. If you are really sure of your, Trust worthiness, Accountability and confidentiality on this transaction contact me" are the words of Morgan Ashante (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/64).


Just preceding the email's closing the reader is given a request for confidentiality, like Capt. Rafael Martinez asking the reader "be mindful of the fact that I would prefer that you keep this confidential as I am still in the service and I do not want to lose my Job" (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/98). Other times such request seems to contradict what has been written previous on the legitimate nature of the operation 

[ADD EXAMPLE]

At times some 419 deviate from this structure, as in cases where all the functions are agglutinated into short form, a kind of synthesis of the previously mentioned stages, where the reader is still communicated the proposition, but doesn't need to read as much as in a usual message, this is the case of Alima Kipkalya Kones' message (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/75). 

[ADD ANOTHER SHORT VERSION]
[ADD + DEVIATIONS]


This fixed structure might make spam author's work easier. It provides them with a plan to follow, constituted by a number of slots on to which the story can more easily be written, and communicated. 

[ A WRITING MACHINE ] [MORE]

Another example of the employment of a stable macro-structure to generate artistic works has been depicted by Umberto Eco in Ian Flemming's James Bond novels (1982). Eco describes the Bond plot as a scheme which begins with M moving and giving Bond a task, followed by the villain's move, appearing to Bond, which leads to Bond giving the first check to the Villain or the Villain to Bond, and so forth until the end. From novel to novel this scheme remains constant. The same elements are presented in every story, although the order can change, and events can appear more than once. Eco asks how can an inventive fiction-writer function within the limitations of such predetermined plot. He answers by stating that repetition is a characteristic of detective stories, and this unchangeable scheme allows the reader to recognize something he already knows and has grown found of. In other words the detective story produces redundancy. While "pretending to arouse the reader, in fact it reconfirms him a sort of imaginative laziness, and creates escape not by narrating the unknown but the already known"(Eco 1982, p.258). Eco describes the reader's pleasure as finding himself in a game, where both elements and rules are known, and often also the outcome, Bond always win against the Villain and the free-world against tyranny of the Soviet Union. 

[ADD CALVINO NOTES ON FOLKTALES: often repeating, constantly varying]


events??

[ story level, in its characters, and events, and at the delivery level, in its structural organization. ]

=explanations for the repetitions

why are repetitions so ubiquitous to spam?


FIND LOCATION

  • fictitious nature of 419s' stories. - a desire to escape?

If I taken another look at the examples given to identify the 419s narrative structure formula I am struck by the unreal nature of these narrative. Like the story told by the banker Peter Hayman (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/63), asking the reader to help in safe-guarding the funds from a deceased rich client, before they are claimed by the country's authorities. It seems quite unlikely that an outsider would is able to influence this sort of process more than a banker would. Or to receive an email from a soldier took part in Osama bin Laden's arrest. Yet, these narratives, despite they unreal nature don't seem to stick out from the rest of 419s stories, as all of them propose deals and present situations that are, at least, unlikely to be encountered by one of us. Since all its indexes indicate their fictional nature. It becomes hard to believe that anyone would take them as reality,

  • could it be that they provide the reader with a form of escape, not unlike detective novels, western movies, or other mass culture productions of a very formulaic nature?



  • economy principal - msgs produced with no effort (Heyd p.82)



Bibliography

  • Barron, Anne 2006
  • BBC.co.uk (2011) Nigerian politician Bankole pleads not guilty to fraud. 8 June 2011 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13699458> [Accessed 13 March 2013]
  • Blommaert, J. (2005) Making Millions: English indexicality and fraud. King's College London, accessed 08 March 2013 <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/groups/ldc/publications/workingpapers/29.pdf>
  • Burrell, J. (2012) Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana. MIT Press. Cambridge / London, accessed 10 March 2013 <http://monoskop.org/log/?p=6724>
  • Craigslist (2012) Scams <http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams> [Accessed 14 March 2013]
  • Eco, Umberto (1982) The Narrative Structure of Ian Fleming. In Waites, B., Bennett, T. and Martin, G. (ed.) Popular Culture: Past and Present. Kent: The Open University. p.242-262
  • Gallix, Andrew (2008) Spam Lit: the silver lining of junk mail? guardian.co.uk 1 July 2008. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/jul/01/spampoetyrem> [Accessed 14 March 2013]
  • Glickman, H. (2005) The Nigerian "419" Advance Fee Fraud. Canadian Journal of African Studies 39(3), pp. 460 - 489
  • Heyd, Theresa. 2008. 'Email Hoaxes: Form, function, genre ecology'. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Amsterdam / Philadelphia.
  • Hirschman, E. (1988) The Ideology of Consumption: A Structural-Syntactical Analysis of "Dallas" and "Dynasty". Journal of Consumer Research 15(3), pp. 344-359.
  • Propp, Vladímir. 1929. Morphology of the Folk Tale. The American Folklore Society and Indiana University.
  • Suleiman, Susan (1980). Redundancy and the "Readable" Text. Poetics Today 1(3), pp.119-142
  • Thomason, A. (2007) Blog Spam: A Review. Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Email and Anti-Spam <http://www.ceas.cc/2007/papers/papers/paper-85.pdf> [Accessed 14 March 2013]
  • Wikipedia (2013) Wikipedia:Spam <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Spam> [Accessed 14 March 2013]
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