The Yahoo Boys: Love, Deception, and the Real Lives of Nigeria's Romance Scammers

by Carlos Barragán

A closely observed work of narrative nonfiction about four young romance scammers in Lagos, Nigeria, as they struggle to get by in one of the world's most unequal cities.

Ikotun, one of Lagos’s poorest neighborhoods, lies ten miles and a world away from the towers and beaches at the heart of Nigeria’s megacity. By day, the market vibrates with the sound of traders hawking their wares. By night, thousands of workers of another kind begin their shifts in bars and crumbling these are the Yahoo Boys.

Mostly men in their teens and twenties, many turning to drugs to stay awake as they chat with “clients” overseas, the Yahoo Boys are online romance scammers. Whether impersonating male celebrities or anonymous young women, each year they catfish millions of dollars from victims. Some have attained the status of folk heroes, while thousands more “cash out” only to lose it all.

Inspired by his mother’s own brush with a scammer, the journalist Carlos Barragán takes us on a journey to understand the lives of the Yahoo Boys of Ikotun. We meet Biggy and Chibuike, each struggling with the temptations of fast money; Azeez, a tailor’s apprentice caught between the lure of crime and Nigeria’s economic crisis; and Richie, who is convinced that he’s responsible for the death of a woman in Kentucky he manipulated online for years.

Written with sensitivity and nuance, and posing difficult questions about reparations and the Western loneliness epidemic, The Yahoo Boys is this generation’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers—the work of a blazing new journalistic talent.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication June 9, 2026

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This was a rather fascinating read: while writing a book on modern day loneliness, the author decided to track down his mother's Nigerian romance scammer to find out why his mother fell for the ruse. Along the way he made several revelations about the nature of the scams and the people who commit them. Although he states at the end he never intended to do an academic study of romance scams and instead tell the story of four scammers, there are a lot of fascinating revelations in here.

The book is not about justifying or rationalizing the scammers or the victims; rather, it is an eye-opening analysis of the situation, focusing mostly on the scammers themselves in the form of 4 boys (and one female) scammer. Some were money laundering, some were impersonating celebrities, and other just stole profiles/images and used those. Both sides of the scam were neither vilified nor excused - the author does a good job of maintaining a very detached analysis that goes beyond black-and-white. This included socio-economics, loneliness epidemic, a system that creates the opportunities, and honestly a lot of people lying (both to themselves and others) on both sides of the ocean.

The interviews are very thorough and also include girlfriends, parents, and even a victim in one case. A big picture is created amidst the intimacy of the scams themselves.

Perhaps the most interesting revelation was that the scammers were not part of a sophisticated network or mastermind criminal groups and honestly were a bunch of very young and very foolish boys. Sadly, they weren't living life large on the ill-gotten gains but instead most blew through the money very quickly on drugs, ostentatious displays and profligacy. Getting to know the scammers' stories in no way made what they do/did forgivable but definitely made it easier to understand why it is done and why it is so successful. I also appreciated interesting observation such as a notation that men were far easier to scam and gave money faster but gave up sooner while the women victims took much longer but ultimately gave more in the end.

This is well worth the read, especially since it pointed out at the end where the next focus of scamming would go now that people are wizening up to romance/celebrity/pig butchering/Nigerian Prince scams. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[ebbl · Rating 5 out of 5]

"But what you've got to remember is what you're looking at is also you." –James Baldwin
This title is tagged true crime, but it feels much more like narrative journalism. Barragán shares vignettes of young Lagosians who work on their phones, getting paid through complex networks of gift cards and cryptocurrency. I found it moving and thought provoking: flex culture among poor young adults, internet English as a global (neocolonial) language, the glorification of entrepreneurship, prosperity gospel. Ultimately, I think about who we are versus who we show to the world (both in our daily interactions and online). The flexer who's still hungry, the hype man drinking water from an expensive bottle, the "Go for it!" woman who sits trapped by her husband, the Yahoo boy surrounded by friends at the club who feels most seen by the person he's scamming.