Discursive Manipulation Strategies in Virtual Scams in Global Contexts

Abstract

This chapter examines how online fraudsters explore the experiential, interpersonal, and textual language metafunctions in the crafting of their emails for global audiences. A critical study of international virtual scam emails over a period of time shows that these scammers tend to improve on how they construct their messages as they rely on experiential knowledge of what they believe will appeal to their audience. Recent scam emails use fewer pressure tactics, and writers present their identity as that of a non-confident, naïve, vulnerable, and ignorant persons, thereby increasing the discursive power of their addressees in the interaction. Scammers also use different forms of politeness strategies to bait their victims.