Master and Mugu 211scam legends. Thus, Sgt. James Herron, who is “an American military
soldier, serving in the military with the army’s 3rd infantry division” in
Iraq, is in “very desperate need for assistance and [has] summed courage
to contact” the recipient of his email about the transfer of “the sum of
twelve million United States dollars (US $ 12,000,000).” The email goes
on to explain the source of the money and lends credence to its existence
with a link to a BBC News story:
Source of money: some money in various currencies were discovered in
barrels at a farmhouse near one of saddam’s old palaces in tikrit-iraq dur-
ing a rescue operation, and it was agreed by staff Sgt Kenneth buff and i
that some part of this money be shared Between both of us before inform-
ing anybody about it since both of us saw the money first. Find the story of
this total money found on the web address below: http://news.bbc.co.uk
/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm. (October 2, 2010)Similarly, the Asian tsunami of 2004, Hurricane Katrina of 2005, and the
Haitian earthquake of 2010 were used as backdrops for charity scams,
in which scammers posed as penniless victims, as well as for a variation
on the next-of-kin format to explain a bank client’s death. Even if no hy-
perlink is inserted, scammers play on the intertextual properties of the
internet with the full knowledge that a reference to a “tragic plane crash
on the Lenana Peak, Mount Kenya, Saturday, the 19th day of July, 2003”
(April 22, 2010) may be verified easily through a quick internet search.
This general awareness of the epistemological function of the media
in the West and strategic employment of certain media’s capacities are
not only evident in the scam letters I have discussed so far but also in the
subsequent stages of the scam process, when contact between a scam-
mer and his mark has been firmly established. The production of visual
evidence is the most important tool for dispelling any doubts the mark
may still have. This takes the form of a simulacrum of official documents
(Wizard 2000), such as letters printed on either bona fide or counterfeit
government, bank, or law-firm letterhead, which are stamped and signed
and ultimately resemble official documents as closely as possible. Simi-
larly, the victim is issued an official-looking receipt for every fictitious fee
paid. W hereas the initial scam letters rely on the mimicry of Western no-
tions about Africa, “follow-ups”—as the role-play that develops from such
letters is called in scammer parlance—hinge on the mimesis of official