Revision as of 14:53, 10 March 2013

Outline

Question

Is the reappearance of the same narrative on numerous spam messages a results of the writing methods employed to compose those messages or is repetition and redundancy so ingrained into our western culture, and into our expectations as audiences, that spam simply adopted it as a clever strategy to streamline spam's writing process capture our attention?

Discussion

analyze a body of spam in search for forms of repetition

compare each form of repetition to an example from within mass culture (James Bond novels, Superman comics, crime novel, Westerns, (soap-operas ?) )

plot parts - Eco, Propp
characters - ?????
(use of redundancy to convey a message - Suleiman)
(establishment of a game of opposites (light and shade) - Hirschman, Eco)

potential causes of spam appropriation and consequent reoccurring narratives

efforts necessary to accomplish a suitable message - Blommaert
expensive cost of internet access in poorer areas of the globe - Blommaert, Burrell, Heyd
fear of failing to meet the right set of conventions in an online context; therefore safer to use something that seems to respect conventions and look effective – Burrell, Heyd
obvious copy-paste

Introduction

[Question: shall I add the references to what I am stating in the 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. That said the attention spam generates is way beyond what one would expect when finding spam clogging our email accounts. 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, linguists to speculate on the grammatical anomalies contained in spam, 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

Spam production at large seems too colossal and disperse to allow for any proper insights to be drawn within this essay. Therefore I am choosing to narrow my focus to a sub-genre of spam entitled 419 fraud emails. 419s derive their name from the Nigerian law code prohibiting the impersonation or state's officials. And given the initial origin of 419s in West African countries, this sub-genre of spam got its designation. These emails almost without exception involve a posing author proposing the recipient to take part in a highly lucrative and straightforward business. Invariably they given an account as to where does the money originates and why he or she cannot get hold of this sum, therefore the request for my cooperation.

I have decided upon the 419s as an object of study as this form of spam appears to be crafted by hand', rather than resulting from the substitution of variables on a prefab text. The narratives and proposition on them are extremely colorful, inventive, and on the verge of absurdity. Notwithstanding they are marked by a strong formulaic nature, perceptible in its structural organization, characters employed, and events described.

question

As one starts to look through a given number of 419s specimens one might be struck by the reoccurrences happening happening between its texts. 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 present and ingrained in western mass culture, that spam has simply adopted repetition as an attention grabbing strategy?

discussion

I would like to discuss the probability of two explanations for the high level of repetitions and redundancies we are confronted when reading several 419 fraud email. To try to answer this question I will, on the one hand try to establish a correlation between the forms of reocurrence detected on 419s fraud emails and those prevalent in popular culture products. In order to construct my argument I will rely on a body of circa NNN 419 emails, categorized and annotated, and on works of literary criticism, mostly within the realm of structuralism and semiotics, which depict the repetitive or formal aspects of popular texts, such as Vladímir Propp's mapping of Russian fairy-tales into plot formulas, Umberto Eco's reading of James Bond novels and Superman comic-strips, and John Cawelti analysis of crime novels. On the other hand, I will attempt to put forward some other possible, more down-to-earth explanations for the heavy employment repetitions and redundancies on spam. Basing my argumentation on the literature dedicated to 419s text analysis by Jan Blommaert and Harvey Glickman, as well as anthropological field-work developed by Jenna Burrell within the population of young spammers in Ghana's Accra. Some of my explanations will center on the restrictions and costly access to an Internet connection and a computer in some parts of the globe commonly associated with 419s. If we take into account such limitation, as well as the effort and time necessary to construct a grammatically correct and seductive email message, often in a language foreign to the author, and destined to an unknown audience, we might consider the appropriation of an already existing, well-written, and convincing message as a better-off choice. What might begin with a small swapping of names, and the change of a couple of locations, might give away to a drastic change of the initial narrative, while keeping still some characteristics faithful to its source.

conclusion

With the exploration of these two arguments I expect to be able 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. It is also my intention, to use this discussion to transmit the reader an overall image and detailed of this particular sub-genre of spam and the repertoire of stories and characters that inhabit such universe.

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Four-One-Nines

anatomy of a 419

Harvey Glickman in the article The Nigerian "419" Advance Fee Fraud summarizes the 419s as emails, 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 without exception dead. Consequently, the sender asks for the recipient's collaboration in transferring the frozen funds to a foreign account, so that it can be accessed. As a reward for the recipient's collaboration a fraction of the total sum will be given to him or her (Glickman 2005, p.461). [INSERT BLOEMMAERT REFERENCE narratives of dispair ]. Victims who fall for this tall tale are normally asked to provide their personal details, bank name, and account number early on in the scam, such information can be used for credit card applications or checks forgery. Eventually, if the recipient is eager to cooperate requests will ask for money transactions so that a lawyer is payed to do the necessary paper work, an official is bribed to set the process rolling, or identity marks are removed from the banknotes. Victims, like gambles, struggle to admit they are loosing the money they have invested, consequently they keep on feeding in more money in hope that their guaranteed profit will appear. And even when convinced they have been victim of a scam, they are deterred from denouncing the scam, as result of the illegality of the business they've joined (ibid, pp.465-469).

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 was called the "Spanish Prisoner" scheme. In this early 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 the release of these individuals, in which case he'd 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, it was only evident that the 1990's wide spread of internet and email communication would be adopted to launch 419s' schemes. 419s has its origin in Nigeria and started being sent from other African nations, and countries such as Singapore, Russia, and Honk-Kong(ibid pp.472-473).

In some of the narratives described in these emails, the money pertains to Nigeria's once state's officials. Such choice is not fortuitous, as Jenna Burrell indicates the scenarios described are based on the corrupt activities carried out by Nigeria's 1980s and 1990s military governments. They are meant to server as plausible evidence to the sincerity and seriousness of the business proposition (Burrell 2012, Loc 1178 ).

[find one of these emails - ASSOCIATING MONEY TO NIGERIAN OFFICIALS]

However spam is characterized for is ever-changing nature, always trying to circumvent security mechanisms and to be read credulously by recipients. As a result origins for money have to keep changing, but they are inevitably dead. Among the individuals described as the fund's sources we can 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.

[add another source to Spanish Prisoner tale] 
[add another source to Nigerian political context ]

my 419s' archive

The previously mentioned information on the characters featured of 419s derives from spam email messages collected under a database located at http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/ . This repository, although still in development, holds a collection of NNN 419s. The emails are organized according the who happens to be the character posing as its writer, holding a number of emails under each character's placehorder. The characters repertoirs includes the banker, the relative of a states' person, the soldier, the rich but fatally ill widow. These characters are the face of what Jan Blommaert identifies as typology of spam email which he entitles narratives of experience and trust. These include the dormant accounts, in which a banker or assurance officer found unclaimed funds from a deceased client, and proposes a transaction to the addressee; Rescue operation where the reader is ask to assist in transferring the writer's capital from to a safe foreign account, as the posing author find himself in trouble at his home country. And charity emails written by a supposedly religious author, nearing his last days and wanting to give away his capital to charities.

within in this typology Blommaert distinguish two sub-categories. The first consisting of Lottery rewards, these are marked by a formal and administrative language. The remaining three categories form what Blommaert entitles narratives of experience and trust. Despite this division, and the employment of different narratives, moral frames, Blommaert denotes the uniformity and stability of the messages within these categories, gathered in the context of this article (pp. 4-9).

The material gathering of emails of a particular character begins with the arrival of one email in my email account; While reading if I realize I am dealing with 419 I will look further on to whom poses as the author of the email, say its a soldier, under then name David Joseph; That prompts me to make a Google search on the terms "419 fraud David Joseph" and invariably I end up in one of the fraud alert website such as 419.bittenus.com, antifraudintl.org or scamdex.com and along with David Joseph email lay dozens of other email similar emails, in which a British or American soldier proposes a highly lucrative deal.

While using the aforementioned method to expand my database I was struck by a curious specimen, or are rather say a whole group of them. I came across an email whose author posed as Miss Kones, the daughter of Kipkalya Kiprono Kones Kenyan's former road minister whom 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 destined to her in her father's will, before her mean step-mother takes control of all her late-husband's possessions. On searching for emails telling a similar story I was confronted not by similar stories, 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.

repetitions

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.

structure

In what concerns its structure, 419s seem to follow what Jan Blommaert describes as a generic blueprint, consisting of:

i) Terms of address, where the posing writer salutes the reader.

ii) Apology and introduction, gives the reader an explanation for the contact on such secretive and personal matter through an impersonal channel as email, and reasons why has he been chosen to take part in such lucrative business.

iii) Micro-narrative about the origin of the money, elaborates on the money's origin, and why does the posing writer requires the readers cooperation. Some of these stories are related to recognizable contexts, such as recent wars, natural catastrophes, or accidents like plane crashes.

iv) Reassurances to convince the reader of the sincerity of the posing writer, and the secure nature of the operation.

v) Requests for confidentiality made to the reader, even if the proposition entails no risk.

vi) Closing formula. (2005 pp. 11-18).

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 a Russian 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). A function is a slot belonging to an action, that will be materialized by the character who undertakes it and way in which he undertakes it. The function forms a constant and stable unit, while the latter constitute its variables. It should also be noted that the acts performed within each function are interdependent, as in the function interdiction violated, which will determine the form of violation performed by the character.

Such system of fixed and finite elements, combined with interchangeable and numerous characters gives the tale its "multiformity, picturesqueness, and color, and on the other hand, its no less striking uniformity, its repetition" (Propp 1926, p.8). And even when certain function are excluded from a tale, the sequence remains unaltered.

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). Imposing Blommaert's blueprint against the 419s I'd bee collected has revealed to match. I have changed the terms identify each section, 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 which takes place within each section is essentially the same. From this point onward I began discriminating these parts within the collected emails. These divisions made visible by the different background colors of each message.

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 and the reason why are you receiving this email position is also common. Usually following those two moments the writer's introduction marks a pivotal moment in the email, as whom 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 (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/63 ) who in his closing formular presents his contacts, as you'd expected from a bank official:

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

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 convert Christian, affirms the faith including numerous indexes throughout 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 indexically argumentative. It consists of 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" (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 (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/100) indications to "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". The reader is often also reasured 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 (http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/django/acastro/collect_spam/spam/98) who asks 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". Other times such request seems to contradict what has been written previous on the legitimate nature of the operation [MISSING EXAMPLE]

At times there emails that deviate from this fixed structure, as in cases where all the functions are agglutinated into short form, a kind of a 419s synopsis, where the reader is still communicated the propositions, 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) or [ADD ANOTHER SHORT VERSION] [ADD + DEVIATIONS]

This fixed structure of message parts might make spam author's writing work easier. It gives them a plan to follow, providing small slot 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. The scheme carries on, but from novel to novel it remains constant, presenting the same elements 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"(p.258). Going back to the game analogy 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.

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, comparatively to large numbers of 419s circulating, how small the number of characters playing 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, they too must have access to an internet connection and my email address. 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 ABOUT THEM]

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)