Rhetorical strategies in computer-mediated hoax text messages in Nigeria

Abstract

This study focuses on language use in computer-mediated hoax text messages in Nigeria and aims to analyze their nuanced rhetorical  strategies. Hoax messages are perceived as communicative acts with meaning substructure and discursive constituents which emanate from purposive language use, created, and negotiated to swindle unsuspecting victims out of their money. Such textualized transactions  are conduits for fraudulent engagements and have continued to spread unchecked despite their financial implications. This phenomenon  raises a question about the proactive measures taken in the fight against cybercrimes in the country. The position of this  paper is that writers of hoax messages exploit the affordances of technology and language in their fraudulent engagements. Hence, the  effectiveness of such messages is actualized through contrived strategies which often rely on politeness (pathos), claims of institutional  authority (logos), and even suspicion-neutralizing gambits (ethos). Seventeen hoax text messages received via mobile telephony  constitute the data for this study. These hoax text messages are subjected to qualitative construal following Aristotle's Classical  Rhetorical Theory. The findings of the paper reveal that hoax text messages contain linguistic trails which reveal their duplicity and that  the pervasive nature of technology and ineffective cyberspace regulations have encouraged the cheerless spread of computermediated  frauds within and outside Nigeria.