The rumors of the world

We have all been subjected at one time or another to scam messages sent to our inboxes. Some are written by people who pretend to be close friends of political figures, offering large sums of money in exchange for bank transactions. Despite the “too good to be true” nature of these propositions, many people fall prey to them each year. These messages play on our greed, our longing for adventure or exoticism, but also on our post-colonial or simply paternalistic sentiments.