Online conman discourse: Speech genres, strategies, tactics (based on the Russian language)

The article considers online conman discourse as a special type of marketing discursive practice: its communicative purpose, agents and clients are defined; the main speech genres and communicative strategies and tactics, which are implemented in them, are singled out and analyzed through the prism of Tony Robbin’s marketing sales funnel; the inexpediency of its attribution to fraudulent discourse is substantiated. The relevance of the study is due to the growing interest of scientists from various scientific fields in the phenomenon of infogypsyism and the insufficient study of its linguistic side. The material for the study was the Russian texts of online conman discourse dedicated to the promotion of information products – online courses. The results of the study showed that different elements of the marketing sales funnel are actualized in the speech genres of conman discourse, which can be divided into informative elementary and complex, evaluative elementary and complex, imperative elementary and complex. Actualization is carried out with the help of manipulative strategies: the strategy of positioning the information product, the strategy of appeal to the addressee’s problem situation and the strategy of appeal to success. The identified strategies are implemented through the tactics of argumentation, promise, intimisation of communication, emotional impact, inflaming negative assessments, approval/criticism, creating a positive image of the company/information product, directive tactics.