Master and Mugu 225radical honesty offered the only currency with which I could prosper in a
context ridden with fraud and lies. This approach worked well with at least
four interview partners. However, I reached my limit during my exchange
with the fifth, a certain Mike Cahill. He initially responded by email to my
questionnaire. His answer to the question about how he found ideas for
new personas, which he assumed in his scam formats, should have sounded
alarm bells for me. He provided the following sample scam email:
Dear madam or sir,
my name is Matthias K rings, I am a professor of Anthropology teaching
at the University of Mainz, Germany. Check this link to know more about
me: http://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de/ethno/PopKultur/Matthias_Krings
.html.
Until recently when I was crippled by stroke, which left half part of my
body paralysed. I also had extensive eye surgery, which has resulted into
poor vision. For the past two years, I have been looking for a miracle all to
no avail. Recently, my doctor told me a dishearten news about my health
that, the probability of my surviving until the next three months is 1/2.
I contacted you therefore bla bla bla.. .” (email, February 19, 2008)Nonetheless, I arranged an in-depth icq instant messaging interview with
him that lasted two hours and twenty minutes. He was very evasive and
ended up finding out more about me than I did about him. The interview
ended as follows:
M. Cahill: ’Bye for now and thank you for the waste of our time. May I
ask you a question?
M. K rings: Yes.
M. Cahill: Are you truly who you say you are?
M. K rings: Yes.
M. Cahill: Good. As from tomorrow, you will owe your friends some
explanation. You waste my time and you seem happy with that. I will
waste yours.
M. K rings: I don’t think I wasted your time.
M. Cahill: Good.
M. Krings: Since I reciprocated with much more information about me
than you offered me about yourself. Isn’t that so?