book - Gingko Press - ISBN 1584232455
Formerly known as 'Nigeria Scam', the scam emails only apparently coming from Africa are a classic in the phishing category. This kind of spam constitutes a genre in itself, because scam is one of the most psychological sophisticated spam, dealing with plausibly constructing a story, and one of the most fascinating one: the sudden and unexpected fortune coming from nowhere and changing in a while the recipient life. The used narrative is usually framed into a dramatic plot that includes a financial opportunity too big to be missed. Naivety is usual behind the scam outcome and this quality has been translated into professional illustrations in this book. Wagenbreth drawings, in fact, are resembling classical ethnical wood-carved art from Africa with an expressionist sensibility illustrating drama with a metaphorical irony. This public and artistic representation of the original intimacy is then exposed with all the visual power of a pop art poster, debunking then the whole deception fascination.