ART OF THE WEEK

26 May - 1 June 2014  

Scam Baiters (2013 - present) by Manchester-based artist Mishka Henner (b. Brussels, Belgium, 1976) forms part of Henner's Black Diamond exhibition at Carroll / Fletcher, London (25 April - 31 May 2014).  

Scam baiting is a form of internet vigilantism which has flourished with the spread of the web to Africa, South America and the Far East. The vigilante poses as a potential victim in order to publicly expose and waste the scammer's time by responding to their email and feigning receptivity to their demands. The work presents a number of signs that various scammers were asked to make as a result of email conversations, negotiation of fraudulent documents and bogus websites.

 

Images 1-8: The installation includes handpainted signs produced by scammers / email correspondence between Mishka Henner's associate Condo Rice and a cast of characters in Ghana, produced as a cover story for the January 2014 global issues of Vice magazine / cover versions of the YMCA produced by Nigerian scammers with the help of a local choir for a scam baiter posing as George Bush / Photographs taken by scammers to prove their identity to scam baiter.