Your Urgent Assistance is Requested: The Intersection of 419 Spam and New Networks of Imagination

Abstract

This article introduces a series of measures of the geographical manifestation of a subset of unsolicited commercial email, i.e. spam, used to perpetrate ‘advanced fee fraud’. Known as ‘419 spam’, this activity has strong historic ties to Nigeria, where similar frauds were operated via physical letters and faxes during the 1970s and 1980s. This article's analysis reveals that 419 spam operates via a globally dispersed network that nevertheless contains a clear agglomeration of activity in West Africa. Building upon theories of the intersection of cyberspace, states, and individuals, this article argues that 419 spam exemplifies the challenge offered by the Internet to the dominance of states by allowing individuals and movements to create social space that transcends borders. This process is an intriguing and ironic parallel to the description of the rise of the European nation-state as an ‘imagined community’ that challenged medieval systems of authority and existing social epistemologies. The emerging ‘networks of imagination’ developed by transnational social movements and criminal networks to define their sphere of operations present a similar challenge to the primacy of existing authority embedded in the state, particularly for states in crisis such as Nigeria. The article concludes with an examination of the off-line and online implications of 419 spam and its network of imagination for the Nigerian state and its inhabitants. Ranging from strengthening public conceptions of West Africa as a sea of corruption to a decreased ability to interact with the outside world, 419 spammers are playing an important, if illicit, role in the construction and use of Nigeria's and the world's Internet.

Notes

¹ Although the networks surrounding 419 spam are global, this paper uses the term ‘Nigerian spam’ because: (1) Nigeria was the initial source of this version of fraud; (2) many of the individuals involved are Nigerian citizens; and (3) it is the convention of academic and popular literatures reviewed. That said, it is important to note that the people currently involved in 419 spam come from a number of African countries, e.g. Sierre Leone, Ghana, South Africa, etc., as well as other locations, e.g. Russia, Hong Kong, and India, and operate in yet another set of countries, e.g. the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, and the US. Delio (2002a), Schiesel (2004), and Zuckoff (2006) provide informative and accessible overviews of 419 spam and spammers.

² Another anti-spam website, joewein.de, also provides listings of phone numbers associated with 419 spam. Analysis of joewein.de phone numbers produces very similar results to the urgentmessage.org data.

³ Another example is the efforts of the Parents Television Council (which relies on hypermedia to organize) to influence FCC policy on indecency. Shields (2004) reports that the FFC estimates that 99.8% of all indecency complaints received originated from the efforts of the Parents Television Council.

⁴ Another example of emerging networks of imagination that challenge traditional notions of states include the phenomenon of ‘fictitious states’. Unlike more conventional social movements, these groups are focused on the creation and maintenance of imaginary states and lands. See the League of Secessionist States (http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/5111/eng_index.htm) and Bergonia (http://www.bergonia.org/), which comes complete with high resolution maps, demographic statistics, and US Consular Service advisory on travel to Bergonia. One can also find travel guides to imaginary countries such as Molvania and Phaic Tan (http://www.jetlagtravel.com/).

⁵ The author is far from an expert on Nigerian history and relies heavily on the work and expertise of others (Soyinka, 1997; Maier, 2004) to establish a working understanding of the Nigerian polity. Any mischaracterization, however, remains the author's responsibility.

⁶ It is also relatively easy to find Internet discussion forums in which people discuss how to block entire countries (see http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum103/777.htm and http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=5176 for examples). A number of websites (in addition to SpamCop) also offer specially designed utilities to achieve this goal, e.g. http://fixingtheweb.com/, http://www.cluecentral.net/rbl/index.php?item=main; and http://www.wizcrafts.net/nigerian-blocklist.html. Although these tools were designed in order to block spam, their creators are well aware of the larger ramifications of state level blockades: ‘Caution: Use this list at your own risk! There is a strong possibility of blocking innocent people who live in or near these regions, and also people who use ISPs that lease some of their IP space to Nigerians’.

⁷ The following websites, http://www.419eater.com/, http://www.scamorama.com/#antiscam, and http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/, are examples of these activities and contain transcripts and photos of these scam baiting activities.

⁸ The website http://www.419eater.com/ literally calls it ‘The Trophy Room’ and contained close to 1,700 of these types of photos in June 2006.