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The Yahoo Boys: Love, Deception, and the Real Lives of Nigeria's Romance Scammers
A work of immersion journalism about four young romance scammers in Lagos, Nigeria, exploring how and why they scam, and the moral dilemmas they face
When his mother started emailing with a handsome American soldier who promised to send gold bars to her Madrid apartment, the journalist Carlos Barragán came face to face with the human toll of online romance fraud. After tracing the emails to an IP address in Nigeria, he traveled to Lagos to find his mother’s scammer and stumbled on a bigger story. There, in a crowded and impoverished neighborhood in the midst of Africa’s largest city, he encountered thousands of young men engaged in romance scamming. They call themselves “Yahoo Boys,” and each year they steal millions of dollars from lonely victims overseas, building a dizzying local economy from their phones.
In The Yahoo Boys, Barragán takes us inside the lives of four of the Yahoo Boys of Lagos. 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 believes he caused the death of a Kentucky woman who was his victim for years. Some Yahoo Boys attain the status of folk heroes, buying houses and cars with the money they steal, while others become dependent on drugs and “cash out”―successfully scam a victim―only to lose it all.
Through the Yahoo Boys’ twisting fortunes, Barragán discovers the psychological tactics they perfect, the brutal economic realities that drive them, and the moral dilemmas they confront. A work of radical empathy, this book reveals the human face behind a global phenomenon, and shows how loneliness in the West and poverty in Nigeria are two sides of the same coin.
When his mother started emailing with a handsome American soldier who promised to send gold bars to her Madrid apartment, the journalist Carlos Barragán came face to face with the human toll of online romance fraud. After tracing the emails to an IP address in Nigeria, he traveled to Lagos to find his mother’s scammer and stumbled on a bigger story. There, in a crowded and impoverished neighborhood in the midst of Africa’s largest city, he encountered thousands of young men engaged in romance scamming. They call themselves “Yahoo Boys,” and each year they steal millions of dollars from lonely victims overseas, building a dizzying local economy from their phones.
In The Yahoo Boys, Barragán takes us inside the lives of four of the Yahoo Boys of Lagos. 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 believes he caused the death of a Kentucky woman who was his victim for years. Some Yahoo Boys attain the status of folk heroes, buying houses and cars with the money they steal, while others become dependent on drugs and “cash out”―successfully scam a victim―only to lose it all.
Through the Yahoo Boys’ twisting fortunes, Barragán discovers the psychological tactics they perfect, the brutal economic realities that drive them, and the moral dilemmas they confront. A work of radical empathy, this book reveals the human face behind a global phenomenon, and shows how loneliness in the West and poverty in Nigeria are two sides of the same coin.
266 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 9, 2026
About the author
Carlos Barragán
1 book41 followersCarlos Barragán is a reporter and researcher for The New York Times based in Madrid. He was formerly a reporter at El Confidencial before receiving his MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. The Yahoo Boys is his first book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 307 reviews
July 28, 2026
𝐀 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐈’𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐘𝐚𝐡𝐨𝐨 𝐁𝐨𝐲𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦.
I expected much more from this. Not necessarily more sensationalism, but more stakes, more complexity and, most importantly, more insight.
Barragán gets remarkable access to the Yahoo Boys he follows, but that access never translated into the depth I was hoping for. Their stories are contradictory and sometimes obviously performative, and eventually Barragán himself acknowledges that he doesn't always know when he's being told the truth. That left me wondering what I'd actually learned from spending all this time with them.
I also wanted a much deeper exploration of the circumstances surrounding this world. Poverty and limited opportunities are part of the picture, but so are family obligations, expectations around providing, status, personal choices and countless other cultural and social factors. The particular men followed here didn't give me that complexity, and I never felt the cultural divide between journalist and subjects was successfully overcome.
The victims' stories didn't have the impact I expected either. Romance scams can be enormously destructive, financially and psychologically, yet the cases here never really conveyed the scale of that potential devastation for me.
The book promises the human face behind a global phenomenon, but I felt I'd already seen that face. We've heard these stories through documentaries, catfishing programmes, reality television and the news. I kept waiting for the book to take me somewhere those accounts couldn't.
It never did.
I expected much more from this. Not necessarily more sensationalism, but more stakes, more complexity and, most importantly, more insight.
Barragán gets remarkable access to the Yahoo Boys he follows, but that access never translated into the depth I was hoping for. Their stories are contradictory and sometimes obviously performative, and eventually Barragán himself acknowledges that he doesn't always know when he's being told the truth. That left me wondering what I'd actually learned from spending all this time with them.
I also wanted a much deeper exploration of the circumstances surrounding this world. Poverty and limited opportunities are part of the picture, but so are family obligations, expectations around providing, status, personal choices and countless other cultural and social factors. The particular men followed here didn't give me that complexity, and I never felt the cultural divide between journalist and subjects was successfully overcome.
The victims' stories didn't have the impact I expected either. Romance scams can be enormously destructive, financially and psychologically, yet the cases here never really conveyed the scale of that potential devastation for me.
The book promises the human face behind a global phenomenon, but I felt I'd already seen that face. We've heard these stories through documentaries, catfishing programmes, reality television and the news. I kept waiting for the book to take me somewhere those accounts couldn't.
It never did.
June 16, 2026
It’s a good book, well written, the audio was great, the subject very interesting. But I had to put it down at 50% because the material is just heart wrenching and I had enough.
June 14, 2026
Really enjoyed this book. The author did an excellent job of humanizing both sides of romance scams.
June 17, 2026
the first sentence of the author's note talked about how this was a failed attempt at writing a book about loneliness... and the lack of focus/direction unfortunately shows a bit. I almost wish the story had opened/been framed through the lens of the journey we get in the authors note. instead, it meanders a bit — from the author's personal experience/quest to find his mother's scammer (which truly does not happen at all), to loneliness, to the history of nigeria, to the history of scamming...
definitely interesting but I just thought it could've been a lot stronger with a little more direction
definitely interesting but I just thought it could've been a lot stronger with a little more direction
July 23, 2026
I picked up The Yahoo Boys expecting to learn about online scams, but I ended up with a much bigger conversation about poverty, opportunity, and the choices people make when they feel like they have none. I appreciated that the author didn’t excuse the harm these scams cause, but also didn’t reduce the Yahoo boys to one-dimensional villains, giving readers a perspective we don’t often hear. It’s one of those books that leaves you sitting with uncomfortable truths because the suffering on both sides is real. I’d give it 3.5–4 stars for challenging my assumptions and reminding me that understanding someone’s circumstances isn’t the same as justifying their actions.
July 12, 2026
I got this pushed in my face continuously by NYT until I finally relented and I’m so glad I did. This was such a fascinating but depressing read. No one is a winner here. These Nigerian scammer kids are simultaneously trying to stay alive/get a better life while being sucked into this show-off culture that keeps them down. The ones being scammed are living this lonely existing that while some even figure out it’s not real but continue on to have someone to speak to. It was all together a super interesting read and the author does a great job with his thorough research. The writing style was great and I loved how we followed several different storylines. There is a rather shocking ending and it really brought the whole book together. Absolutely loved it.
June 13, 2026
Katy Perry Catfish episode on steroids
August 20, 2026
In this deeply empathetic and compassionate work of immersion journalism, Carlos Barragán draws readers into the world of romance scammers in Lagos, Nigeria, exploring how and why they scam and all the complex moral dilemmas that arise from their activities. Called “Yahoo Boys,” a holdover from the email platform that was commonly used in the early days of scamming, these scammers number in the thousands in Lagos alone and are responsible for stealing millions of dollars from overseas victims each year. That scammed money is then often spent extravagantly in the local economy, on cars, drugs, designer clothing and jewelry, and houses and expensive hotel stays.
What Barragán does particularly well in The Yahoo Boys is humanize everyone involved in these scams, scammers and victims alike. He paints romance scams as a much more complicated, nuanced picture than they appear to be on the surface. He doesn’t excuse the harm that the Yahoo Boys cause with their scams, but he doesn’t villainize them either, and I appreciated the complex perspective. You can understand someone’s circumstances without justifying the destructive actions they take to rise above them.
The four Yahoo Boys Barragán profiles in this book are desperate and under enormous pressure, from family or peers or society itself, to earn money. And in Lagos, where poverty is rampant and well-paying jobs are scarce, the easiest way to make money is by preying on lonely overseas victims. It’s easy to feel sympathy for the victims, who in many instances continue engaging with their scammers even after they know the truth, just for someone to talk to; but Barragán shows that, in their own way, the scammers are victims too. It becomes patently clear that the loneliness epidemic in the West and abject poverty in Nigeria are intrinsically linked.
In addition to the incredibly human element of this book, there’s so much fascinating information about the history and culture of Nigeria, including its economy and its corrupt government, its destitution and the value it places on materialism. Scamming has become so deeply embedded in Nigeria that the economy literally depends on the money it brings in, which I found completely mind-boggling. But more than anything, The Yahoo Boys just made me feel sad. There are no winners here; there is tragedy and suffering on both sides. It’s devastating how the Yahoo Boys prey on their victims’ desire for care and connection – and it’s devastating that many of them feel they have no other choice. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the complimentary listening opportunity.
What Barragán does particularly well in The Yahoo Boys is humanize everyone involved in these scams, scammers and victims alike. He paints romance scams as a much more complicated, nuanced picture than they appear to be on the surface. He doesn’t excuse the harm that the Yahoo Boys cause with their scams, but he doesn’t villainize them either, and I appreciated the complex perspective. You can understand someone’s circumstances without justifying the destructive actions they take to rise above them.
The four Yahoo Boys Barragán profiles in this book are desperate and under enormous pressure, from family or peers or society itself, to earn money. And in Lagos, where poverty is rampant and well-paying jobs are scarce, the easiest way to make money is by preying on lonely overseas victims. It’s easy to feel sympathy for the victims, who in many instances continue engaging with their scammers even after they know the truth, just for someone to talk to; but Barragán shows that, in their own way, the scammers are victims too. It becomes patently clear that the loneliness epidemic in the West and abject poverty in Nigeria are intrinsically linked.
In addition to the incredibly human element of this book, there’s so much fascinating information about the history and culture of Nigeria, including its economy and its corrupt government, its destitution and the value it places on materialism. Scamming has become so deeply embedded in Nigeria that the economy literally depends on the money it brings in, which I found completely mind-boggling. But more than anything, The Yahoo Boys just made me feel sad. There are no winners here; there is tragedy and suffering on both sides. It’s devastating how the Yahoo Boys prey on their victims’ desire for care and connection – and it’s devastating that many of them feel they have no other choice. Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the complimentary listening opportunity.
September 1, 2026
Carlos Barragán's own mother became the target of an online romance scammer. He was able to track the emails to an IP address in Nigeria and decided to travel there to confront the scammer. He discovered a world of young men running "catfishing" rings. Yahoo Boys is the local slang term for these tech savvy scammers who swindle their victims out of millions of dollars. Barragán clearly shows the struggles of both the victims and the perpetrators. As many of the victims in the West are lonely senior citizens, they are looking for companionship. The yahoo boys suffer through poverty and hyperinflation in Nigeria. I can't excuse what they do to acquire money, especially as Barragán shows how the illicit money is spent on drugs, fancy jewelry, and other non-essentials.
I found this book fascinating. Some of the scammers carry on relationships with their victims for a long time (more than a year or two) and become attached to the victims. Toward the end of the book, Barragán asks how their jobs will be affected by AI. Yes, even scammers are worried about AI taking their jobs. As I was reading this book, I remembered this ten-minute TED Talk about email scammers. It's hilarious and almost guaranteed to make you laugh despite being over 10 years old.
I found this book fascinating. Some of the scammers carry on relationships with their victims for a long time (more than a year or two) and become attached to the victims. Toward the end of the book, Barragán asks how their jobs will be affected by AI. Yes, even scammers are worried about AI taking their jobs. As I was reading this book, I remembered this ten-minute TED Talk about email scammers. It's hilarious and almost guaranteed to make you laugh despite being over 10 years old.
July 7, 2026
4.5 stars
I expected this book to be a thrilling look into an international scam and was disappointed with the ordinariness of the scammers and the crimes. But as the book moved along I was taken in by the writing and the themes of loneliness and simple desires. As with any human story it's all very complicated and the author presented the scammers and victims in such interesting ways. Both groups seemed so pathetic. It's easy enough to feel sympathy for the victims but as loathsome as some of the scammers were they were pitiable in many ways themselves. So this book is really a study of human misery, not a page turning crime caper, and I'm really happy it worked out that way.
The reading experience reminded me of Lost At Sea: good story, captivating writing.
I expected this book to be a thrilling look into an international scam and was disappointed with the ordinariness of the scammers and the crimes. But as the book moved along I was taken in by the writing and the themes of loneliness and simple desires. As with any human story it's all very complicated and the author presented the scammers and victims in such interesting ways. Both groups seemed so pathetic. It's easy enough to feel sympathy for the victims but as loathsome as some of the scammers were they were pitiable in many ways themselves. So this book is really a study of human misery, not a page turning crime caper, and I'm really happy it worked out that way.
The reading experience reminded me of Lost At Sea: good story, captivating writing.
June 21, 2026
Nuanced and compassionate narrative journalism about western loneliness, Nigerian poverty, American tech and government corruption. I’m glad this humanizes all involved but it’s absolutely gut wrenching 💔
July 21, 2026
"The Yahoo Boys" is one of the strongest examples of investigative nonfiction I have read in a while.
Carlos Barragán takes a topic many people think they understand, romance scams, and reveals how much more complex the reality is.
This is well beyond a simple story of cruel scammers and gullible victims. Barragán looks closely at the ecosystem that makes these scams possible: Nigerian history and culture, poverty, peer pressure, drugs, masculinity, technology, global inequality, and Western loneliness.
He also writes with real compassion for victims, showing how scammers exploit not stupidity, but the very human desire to be seen, chosen, and consistently cared for.
What impressed me most was the depth of the reporting.
Barragán does not write from a distance. He follows people, builds connections, asks hard questions, and sits with uncomfortable contradictions.
The result is a book that is humane without losing moral clarity.
The harm these scams cause is real and devastating, but the people involved are not flattened into easy categories.
I found myself thinking this would make an incredible text for a special topics criminology course. It raises rich questions about victimology, cybercrime, research methods, globalization, rational choice, strain, and the commodification of human connection.
The most unexpected insight may be that scammers are not the only ones profiting from loneliness.
In a world where attention is fractured and human connection is increasingly monetized, the offer of consistent, undivided attention can become dangerously seductive.
An excellent read.
Carlos Barragán takes a topic many people think they understand, romance scams, and reveals how much more complex the reality is.
This is well beyond a simple story of cruel scammers and gullible victims. Barragán looks closely at the ecosystem that makes these scams possible: Nigerian history and culture, poverty, peer pressure, drugs, masculinity, technology, global inequality, and Western loneliness.
He also writes with real compassion for victims, showing how scammers exploit not stupidity, but the very human desire to be seen, chosen, and consistently cared for.
What impressed me most was the depth of the reporting.
Barragán does not write from a distance. He follows people, builds connections, asks hard questions, and sits with uncomfortable contradictions.
The result is a book that is humane without losing moral clarity.
The harm these scams cause is real and devastating, but the people involved are not flattened into easy categories.
I found myself thinking this would make an incredible text for a special topics criminology course. It raises rich questions about victimology, cybercrime, research methods, globalization, rational choice, strain, and the commodification of human connection.
The most unexpected insight may be that scammers are not the only ones profiting from loneliness.
In a world where attention is fractured and human connection is increasingly monetized, the offer of consistent, undivided attention can become dangerously seductive.
An excellent read.
August 24, 2026
*Audiobook.
Such an interesting premise. Kudos for that alone. But Carlos needed to partner with a more experienced journalist, preferably someone from Nigeria, to help him hone in on what he wanted to say and give appropriate structure to the vast amount of information gathered. His subjects provided him a lot of access, especially for people who were committing crimes.
Will start with what he did well: the descriptions of the boys' exploits, their day to day lives, their scam scripts, and just the general maneuverings were detailed and interesting. The narrator (Nathan Luwa) also made this so much better, by the way. Loved his voice and his pronunciation. The way he narrated the boys' dialogue was so perfect. He really brought them to life. After some digging, I realized he's a Brit-Nigerian and it all made sense. Good choice by the publisher/Carlos!
What he should have worked on: being aware of his bias and not letting his moral superiority bleed into his retelling. So often he seemed aghast that the boys or their families didn't find anything wrong with what they were doing. He kept acting shocked when they showed no regret and I just did not understand why. Those who feel bad about what they are doing stop after a while. These boys don't and didn't. So remove your sanctimoniousness from the narrative and let's move on! He also had a habit of making it clear which boys he approved of and which he didn't through the language he used to describe them. The ones he liked were described positively, down to their facial descriptions. The ones he didn't like never received that same courtesy. I'm not sure I'm explaining this as clearly as I want to, but it's very noticeable once you pay attention.
I also think he should have done a better job of situating what was happening in the broader Nigerian context. Like why is inflation so out of control right now? What global forces are affecting the economy and influencing these boys to continue scamming? He touched on this a bit when describing how difficult it was for boys to get an education or find work, but I think he could have gone deeper and made it more plain. I happen to have family from the country and am more familiar with the goings on so I came in with a shortcut that most readers won't have.
Another interesting avenue to explore could have been the advent of AI chatbots and their effect on the racket these boys have going on. Some of that may have been hard to predict, and he likely didn't want to hold the release any further, but just the brief mention made me think there was another interesting path to explore.
Carlos describes this as a failed book about the loneliness epidemic and he's right in a sense, but the yahoo boy economy encompasses much more than that. I enjoyed this for what it was, but I can see the potential for a stronger, more focused story if he had the support and guidance of someone who could help him really lock it down.
Such an interesting premise. Kudos for that alone. But Carlos needed to partner with a more experienced journalist, preferably someone from Nigeria, to help him hone in on what he wanted to say and give appropriate structure to the vast amount of information gathered. His subjects provided him a lot of access, especially for people who were committing crimes.
Will start with what he did well: the descriptions of the boys' exploits, their day to day lives, their scam scripts, and just the general maneuverings were detailed and interesting. The narrator (Nathan Luwa) also made this so much better, by the way. Loved his voice and his pronunciation. The way he narrated the boys' dialogue was so perfect. He really brought them to life. After some digging, I realized he's a Brit-Nigerian and it all made sense. Good choice by the publisher/Carlos!
What he should have worked on: being aware of his bias and not letting his moral superiority bleed into his retelling. So often he seemed aghast that the boys or their families didn't find anything wrong with what they were doing. He kept acting shocked when they showed no regret and I just did not understand why. Those who feel bad about what they are doing stop after a while. These boys don't and didn't. So remove your sanctimoniousness from the narrative and let's move on! He also had a habit of making it clear which boys he approved of and which he didn't through the language he used to describe them. The ones he liked were described positively, down to their facial descriptions. The ones he didn't like never received that same courtesy. I'm not sure I'm explaining this as clearly as I want to, but it's very noticeable once you pay attention.
I also think he should have done a better job of situating what was happening in the broader Nigerian context. Like why is inflation so out of control right now? What global forces are affecting the economy and influencing these boys to continue scamming? He touched on this a bit when describing how difficult it was for boys to get an education or find work, but I think he could have gone deeper and made it more plain. I happen to have family from the country and am more familiar with the goings on so I came in with a shortcut that most readers won't have.
Another interesting avenue to explore could have been the advent of AI chatbots and their effect on the racket these boys have going on. Some of that may have been hard to predict, and he likely didn't want to hold the release any further, but just the brief mention made me think there was another interesting path to explore.
Carlos describes this as a failed book about the loneliness epidemic and he's right in a sense, but the yahoo boy economy encompasses much more than that. I enjoyed this for what it was, but I can see the potential for a stronger, more focused story if he had the support and guidance of someone who could help him really lock it down.
August 3, 2026
Listened via audiobook
Just a fascinating deep dive into the life of “ yahoo boys”, the scammers in Nigeria who make a living off of pretending to be someone they aren’t in order to solicit money. My favorite parts of the book were when we got a deeper look into how these yahoo boys are able to justify scamming often older and naïve adults, as well as getting a deeper dive into how they make their money(via gift cards they sell often to Chinese gamers who are trying to bypass China’s Web restrictions), and hearing about how these scammed adults move forward.
Ranked this a five because I would absolutely recommend anyone to read, although at points it made me feel so so so so sad
Just a fascinating deep dive into the life of “ yahoo boys”, the scammers in Nigeria who make a living off of pretending to be someone they aren’t in order to solicit money. My favorite parts of the book were when we got a deeper look into how these yahoo boys are able to justify scamming often older and naïve adults, as well as getting a deeper dive into how they make their money(via gift cards they sell often to Chinese gamers who are trying to bypass China’s Web restrictions), and hearing about how these scammed adults move forward.
Ranked this a five because I would absolutely recommend anyone to read, although at points it made me feel so so so so sad
July 27, 2026
4.5 Easy to read, and I appreciate the author’s honesty when sharing his own thoughts and impressions. In Chinese we say Whoever is pitiful must have a cause to be despised， 可怜人必有可恨之处. This book shows these both sides of the yahoo boys, and a bit of the systematic issues rooted in the Nigerian society.
July 10, 2026
The YAHOO BOYS is one of those books that stays with you long after you've finished it.
I expected a book about online scams, but it turned out to be so much more.
Carlos Barragan spends time with the scammers, trying to understand how poverty, hopelessness, and circumstances led many of them down that path.
What struck me most was how human everyone felt in the story - both the victims and the scammers.
Without ever excusing the deception, he explores the complexities behind it, making it impossible to see the story in simple black and white.
It's an extremely thought provoking book that makes you think about loneliness, desperation, and the choices people make when they feel they have no better option. It made me think about how easily we judge people without understanding their story.
One of the best works of non fiction I've read!
I expected a book about online scams, but it turned out to be so much more.
Carlos Barragan spends time with the scammers, trying to understand how poverty, hopelessness, and circumstances led many of them down that path.
What struck me most was how human everyone felt in the story - both the victims and the scammers.
Without ever excusing the deception, he explores the complexities behind it, making it impossible to see the story in simple black and white.
It's an extremely thought provoking book that makes you think about loneliness, desperation, and the choices people make when they feel they have no better option. It made me think about how easily we judge people without understanding their story.
One of the best works of non fiction I've read!
July 21, 2026
A fascinating look at the lives of four yahoo boys at various stages of their descent. I laughed and cried for these tragic characters. The author does an excellent job of making you sympathise for both the scammed and the scammer. At the end of the day, we’re all alone doing our best to get by. Some do it at the cost of their morality, others at the cost of their livelihoods. Moral of the story? Hope is a powerful intoxicant.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I first heard the term Yahoo Boys while watching 90 Day Fiancé years ago. Back then, I assumed it referred to networks of African men scamming American women for money or a path to citizenship, an updated version of the Nigerian Prince scams. What I didn’t expect was to learn that many of these “Yahoo Boys” are teenagers—some as young as thirteen—living in a country strained by inflation, corruption, and limited opportunity. For many, scamming isn’t about greed; it’s about survival; others frame it as a form of reparations for slavery and colonization.
The author’s personal connection adds weight to the story: his own mother was scammed. That experience pushed him to understand how intelligent, capable people, like his mother, could fall for these schemes, and to learn more about the young men and women behind them. His research took him to Lagos, where he spent months living among the Yahoo Boys, listening to their stories, and interviewing victims as well.
What impressed me most is how well he humanizes both sides. There’s no syndicate here, just individuals who have been failed by their country, their systems, and sometimes their families. Victims, meanwhile, are often dismissed or shamed as “stupid,” when in reality they’re navigating loneliness, vulnerability, and the illusion of connection that technology creates. The book highlights how pervasive isolation has become in the West, and how easily digital intimacy can blur into deception.
I walked away feeling sympathy for both sides at times. It’s a nuanced, eye‑opening look at a global issue we often oversimplify.
The author’s personal connection adds weight to the story: his own mother was scammed. That experience pushed him to understand how intelligent, capable people, like his mother, could fall for these schemes, and to learn more about the young men and women behind them. His research took him to Lagos, where he spent months living among the Yahoo Boys, listening to their stories, and interviewing victims as well.
What impressed me most is how well he humanizes both sides. There’s no syndicate here, just individuals who have been failed by their country, their systems, and sometimes their families. Victims, meanwhile, are often dismissed or shamed as “stupid,” when in reality they’re navigating loneliness, vulnerability, and the illusion of connection that technology creates. The book highlights how pervasive isolation has become in the West, and how easily digital intimacy can blur into deception.
I walked away feeling sympathy for both sides at times. It’s a nuanced, eye‑opening look at a global issue we often oversimplify.
June 28, 2026
Highly recommend! Compassionate and honest reckoning of all parties in romance scams that is ultimately an examination of loneliness and extreme poverty. Excellent on audio. Very very upsetting at points.
August 25, 2026
an ethnography/creative non-fiction book of romance scammers in nigeria who target american and european men and women, narrated by a journalist whose mother was scammed by someone in nigeria. the book is organized around profiles of three young men and a boy who are all called "yahoo boys" aka those who engage in these scams. it is very character-driven and at the same time is very attentive to the larger systemic dynamics that led to these conditions, namely british colonialism, transatlantic slavery, fossil fuel extraction, corruption within nigerian government and law enforcement. the book asks a number of compelling questions, but maybe the biggest one is, what does it mean to be lonely? what do we need from other people? and what are we willing to sacrifice to get it?
WOW. this book is incredible. the story telling is so well-structured, well-paced, well-organized. the reveals the author pulls off is something very masterful. perhaps even more impressive is the emotional balance the author struck with depicting his subjects...in my mind, he gives them fair treatment. there are so many layers of complexity when it comes to "yahoo boys," their line of business, and all the forces that brought them to that line of work. he treats them with compassion and tenderness, but he is also tough on them in other moments. i was blown away because it truly did feel like an incredibly complicated balancing act.
i also appreciated that, like any good ethnography, the author himself is part of the story. he comes in and out of it, but at very important moments, heʻs a clear player. i donʻt know a lot about the type of journalism that is essentially ethnography, but i was blown away by the authorʻs commitment to these peopleʻs lives and telling their stories. there were a number of moments when i was truly shocked and speechless, and thinking back on it now, it still feels absolutely wild.
this book raises so many important questions, and it doesnʻt fully resolve any of them, but that to me felt okay, because they are questions not easily answerable. that is how i know they are questions worth asking. admittedly, i know very, very little about nigeria, and that very little i know is all routed through figures like chimamanda ngozi adichie. so i am not well-equipped to really speak to the more complex nuances of its representation in this book. however i do think just more generally speaking that this book depicts life in nigeria in a complex way that honors contradiction and does not lazily fall into any singular story of nigeria that is made up of western stereotypes of africa. there is hardship, there is poverty, but there is also creativity and everyone's own particular relationships to their conditions, and even as the author does not agree with all of his subjectʻs on many things, i think the book honors their points of view and is not judgmental.
5/5, best book i have read this year, i cannot recommend it enough.
WOW. this book is incredible. the story telling is so well-structured, well-paced, well-organized. the reveals the author pulls off is something very masterful. perhaps even more impressive is the emotional balance the author struck with depicting his subjects...in my mind, he gives them fair treatment. there are so many layers of complexity when it comes to "yahoo boys," their line of business, and all the forces that brought them to that line of work. he treats them with compassion and tenderness, but he is also tough on them in other moments. i was blown away because it truly did feel like an incredibly complicated balancing act.
i also appreciated that, like any good ethnography, the author himself is part of the story. he comes in and out of it, but at very important moments, heʻs a clear player. i donʻt know a lot about the type of journalism that is essentially ethnography, but i was blown away by the authorʻs commitment to these peopleʻs lives and telling their stories. there were a number of moments when i was truly shocked and speechless, and thinking back on it now, it still feels absolutely wild.
this book raises so many important questions, and it doesnʻt fully resolve any of them, but that to me felt okay, because they are questions not easily answerable. that is how i know they are questions worth asking. admittedly, i know very, very little about nigeria, and that very little i know is all routed through figures like chimamanda ngozi adichie. so i am not well-equipped to really speak to the more complex nuances of its representation in this book. however i do think just more generally speaking that this book depicts life in nigeria in a complex way that honors contradiction and does not lazily fall into any singular story of nigeria that is made up of western stereotypes of africa. there is hardship, there is poverty, but there is also creativity and everyone's own particular relationships to their conditions, and even as the author does not agree with all of his subjectʻs on many things, i think the book honors their points of view and is not judgmental.
5/5, best book i have read this year, i cannot recommend it enough.
September 27, 2026
I think by now we all know about romance scammers who usually prey upon the lonely elderly. I've watched so many Dr. Phil shows about men and women who fall for a celebrity/overseas soldier/foreign cutie who gain the trust of their victim then start asking for money. They need groceries, a plane ticket to visit, a visa, medication...their needs are endless. The world is in the middle of a loneliness epidemic, and these heartless villains are happy to take advantage. Even when the victim is faced with the truth, sometimes they don't even care, they just want someone to pay attention to them. The author, an investigative journalist from Spain, was shocked when he learned that his mother, a bright, independent woman, fell into this trap. When he decided to track the scammer down, he found much more than he bargained for.
Barragan first tracked the VPN of the scammer to a phone in Nigeria, so off he went, in search of the offender. He landed in the middle of thousands of young men, living in an economically devastated country whose culture is...the scam. It started with the Nigerian prince hoax and has now morphed into romance. These boys, all armed with a cell phone, are called The Yahoo Boys. They troll for lonely women and men who just want attention and love, and they give it to them, hoping for a "cash out". The Yahoo Boys are almost revered as heroes in their community, as they purchase homes, cars, drinks for their friends. Often however they spend what they steal, finding themselves broke and strung out on drugs. The author does a deep dive with four of these boys, interviewing them extensively over hundreds of hours. What drives them to live this life? What psychological tactics do they use to manipulate their victims? Do they ever feel regret? Are there women who scam or only men? Why don't they try to save their stolen funds and dig their way out?
These scammers have always been faceless, nameless criminals to me...the damage they do to their victims is devastating and unforgivable. With this book, we get to take a peek behind the curtain to see who these douchebags really are. Let me be clear. Even though these boys have been sucked into a life of crime because of their economic situations, I feel no sympathy for them. But from a psychological perspective, I am interested in how they justify their actions to themselves. That the Nigerian culture is one that lauds the scam and admires the scammers who do the greatest damage. The most heartbreaking thing in this whole story though is the loneliness that permeates humanity, and how vulnerable people are to the ill-intentioned. I read to learn, and I learned (or maybe reinforced) a great deal from this book.
Nathan Luwa was the narrator for this audiobook, and he was perfectly cast for his role. Nathan is an award-nominated British-Nigerian artist who has a gorgeous, deep, melodic voice that is so distinctive, you won't forget him.
Barragan first tracked the VPN of the scammer to a phone in Nigeria, so off he went, in search of the offender. He landed in the middle of thousands of young men, living in an economically devastated country whose culture is...the scam. It started with the Nigerian prince hoax and has now morphed into romance. These boys, all armed with a cell phone, are called The Yahoo Boys. They troll for lonely women and men who just want attention and love, and they give it to them, hoping for a "cash out". The Yahoo Boys are almost revered as heroes in their community, as they purchase homes, cars, drinks for their friends. Often however they spend what they steal, finding themselves broke and strung out on drugs. The author does a deep dive with four of these boys, interviewing them extensively over hundreds of hours. What drives them to live this life? What psychological tactics do they use to manipulate their victims? Do they ever feel regret? Are there women who scam or only men? Why don't they try to save their stolen funds and dig their way out?
These scammers have always been faceless, nameless criminals to me...the damage they do to their victims is devastating and unforgivable. With this book, we get to take a peek behind the curtain to see who these douchebags really are. Let me be clear. Even though these boys have been sucked into a life of crime because of their economic situations, I feel no sympathy for them. But from a psychological perspective, I am interested in how they justify their actions to themselves. That the Nigerian culture is one that lauds the scam and admires the scammers who do the greatest damage. The most heartbreaking thing in this whole story though is the loneliness that permeates humanity, and how vulnerable people are to the ill-intentioned. I read to learn, and I learned (or maybe reinforced) a great deal from this book.
Nathan Luwa was the narrator for this audiobook, and he was perfectly cast for his role. Nathan is an award-nominated British-Nigerian artist who has a gorgeous, deep, melodic voice that is so distinctive, you won't forget him.
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July 11, 2026This year is the year I told myself I need to read more non fiction. I always aim to be a well read girlie and I believe that includes reading non fiction. I can’t be out here being the world’s greatest hater without staying informed. So when I heard about this book that took a in-depth look into African romance scammers, I knew this one was for me. I finished the audiobook in 2 days because I couldn’t stop listening. It humanized the “scammers” and I learned a lot about the economic hardships taking place in Legos and Nigeria. I think this one really surprised me with how I could feel sympathy and still disgust at people scamming such unassuming victims. Just know if someone says they’re a famous person and need you to send them gift cards/ crypto, THEY’RE SCAMMING YA!
July 25, 2026
If you think you can guess what’s behind the rise of Nigeria’s “love scammers,” called Yahoo Boys locally, you’re probably wrong.
Having watched a lot of “Tinder Swindler” type docs, I expected this to be the Nigerian version of the same story. Instead, it’s a very thoughtful portrait of a problematic industry, told both through the experiences of real Yahoo Boys and through the lens of Nigerian history and the country’s more recent economic woes.
The individual Yahoo Boys’ arcs did start to blur together and feel repetitive, which is why it’s not a 5-star read for me. However, I’m really glad I read this.
PS: The ending shocked me. I don’t want to spoil it, but the next iteration of online scammers was far darker than I could have ever imagined.
Having watched a lot of “Tinder Swindler” type docs, I expected this to be the Nigerian version of the same story. Instead, it’s a very thoughtful portrait of a problematic industry, told both through the experiences of real Yahoo Boys and through the lens of Nigerian history and the country’s more recent economic woes.
The individual Yahoo Boys’ arcs did start to blur together and feel repetitive, which is why it’s not a 5-star read for me. However, I’m really glad I read this.
PS: The ending shocked me. I don’t want to spoil it, but the next iteration of online scammers was far darker than I could have ever imagined.
August 30, 2026
Interesting — he says in the authors note this is a failed book on loneliness, but clearly that is exactly what this book is about. I wish he’d spent a little more time exploring the idea of scams as a market for companionship, which he sort of lands at constantly but never dives into as deeply as I’d like.
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July 24, 2026Emotionally gripping and ultimately heartbreaking for both the scammers and the scammed. The author had a humanizing approach to the situation though I wish he said the word “capitalism” when talking about the isolation that drives such behavior on the part of the scammed. The Yoruba names and culture were so heartening and it sparked nice conversations with my father. I liked the context of where the yahoo boys came from within larger issues of British imperialism and the oil boom.
September 9, 2026
For fans of TV shows “Catfish” and “90 Day Fiancé,” this nonfiction offering investigates Nigerian online romance scammers after a journalist’s mother is conned.
Both fascinating and sad.
Western loneliness. 🔁 Nigerian poverty
Both fascinating and sad.
Western loneliness. 🔁 Nigerian poverty
July 10, 2026
What a complete banger of a book! The author is a young Spanish journalist who travels to Lagos, Nigeria to try and track down the man who is love scamming his mother. What begins as a book about loneliness morphs into a complete deep-dive into the world of young Nigerian man working as “yahoo boys”, (because they used to scam with yahoo email addresses) scamming lonely Western women and men.
What struck me the most was the author’s deep, complex empathy, his ability to understand the motivations of the yahoo boys while simultaneously acknowledging the immense harm they were causing strangers on the other side of the world. I often think about the one dimensional and often condescending narrative we have of people who scam (evil, manipulative) and those who fall for scams (stupid, naive). I was famously propositioned into a pseudo spiritual feminist pyramid scheme when I lived in Argentina (google telar de sueños), and I realized the economic conditions were so awful at the time maybe it was actually more possible as someone with little education to make some money in a pyramid scheme than by working. Also, the group did give some of the women I met real, tangible, community. The author discusses the difficulty of life in Lagos with massive inflation and inequality, documenting boys living in poverty with have few other ways to make money. The boys justify the scamming to themselves by bringing up global inequality tied to the slave trade and also that they are in a way providing a service to the people they are scamming, spending hours and drug induced sleepless nights chatting with them and listening to them. But it gets complicated and dark quickly, with teenagers committing suicide based on scammers blackmailing them.
What really moved me was how this Spanish man connected so deeply with the yahoo boys and their victims with over four years of reporting on this story with little funding. He even traveled to Kentucky to track down a scamming victim, which ironically became the only time in the process of the book he feared for his own life. The authors note at the end is a complete must read to understand the book and his dedication to telling the story. He makes it personal without centering himself, hyper specific and simultaneously highly relatable. In a way, the random scammer in Nigeria that targeted a lonely single mother in Spain and connected the author to the story is a painful but also beautiful result of the hyper globalizing forces of the internet.
For me, the most powerful part by far was the section on the one yahoo girl he found, Miracle. Miracle’s life was the story of one incomprehensible trauma after another, and her scam was one of the most twisted and sophisticated of all: she was running an adoption scam, posting pictures of fake babies and targeting desperate Westerners willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the promise of a child of their own. Her scamming also originated from her own loneliness, following the death of her mother. I wonder if the “loneliness epidemic” is really a Western phenomena or if we just focus on it when it isn’t also intertwined with poverty, hunger, and other issues that seem more pressing.
I listened to this as an audiobook and the reader was absolutely amazing also, completely recommend! Also in general this book is a great reminder to text/call the potentially lonely people in our lives more!
What struck me the most was the author’s deep, complex empathy, his ability to understand the motivations of the yahoo boys while simultaneously acknowledging the immense harm they were causing strangers on the other side of the world. I often think about the one dimensional and often condescending narrative we have of people who scam (evil, manipulative) and those who fall for scams (stupid, naive). I was famously propositioned into a pseudo spiritual feminist pyramid scheme when I lived in Argentina (google telar de sueños), and I realized the economic conditions were so awful at the time maybe it was actually more possible as someone with little education to make some money in a pyramid scheme than by working. Also, the group did give some of the women I met real, tangible, community. The author discusses the difficulty of life in Lagos with massive inflation and inequality, documenting boys living in poverty with have few other ways to make money. The boys justify the scamming to themselves by bringing up global inequality tied to the slave trade and also that they are in a way providing a service to the people they are scamming, spending hours and drug induced sleepless nights chatting with them and listening to them. But it gets complicated and dark quickly, with teenagers committing suicide based on scammers blackmailing them.
What really moved me was how this Spanish man connected so deeply with the yahoo boys and their victims with over four years of reporting on this story with little funding. He even traveled to Kentucky to track down a scamming victim, which ironically became the only time in the process of the book he feared for his own life. The authors note at the end is a complete must read to understand the book and his dedication to telling the story. He makes it personal without centering himself, hyper specific and simultaneously highly relatable. In a way, the random scammer in Nigeria that targeted a lonely single mother in Spain and connected the author to the story is a painful but also beautiful result of the hyper globalizing forces of the internet.
For me, the most powerful part by far was the section on the one yahoo girl he found, Miracle. Miracle’s life was the story of one incomprehensible trauma after another, and her scam was one of the most twisted and sophisticated of all: she was running an adoption scam, posting pictures of fake babies and targeting desperate Westerners willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the promise of a child of their own. Her scamming also originated from her own loneliness, following the death of her mother. I wonder if the “loneliness epidemic” is really a Western phenomena or if we just focus on it when it isn’t also intertwined with poverty, hunger, and other issues that seem more pressing.
I listened to this as an audiobook and the reader was absolutely amazing also, completely recommend! Also in general this book is a great reminder to text/call the potentially lonely people in our lives more!
September 17, 2026
I enjoyed this book, Carlos Barragán showed not only how someone becomes a victim to these scams but also why the scammers decide to turn to scamming. I thought it was very empathetic of both the victims and the scammers. There’s a deeper discussion on loneliness and poverty and how desperate circumstances and pressure many times lead to crime. Honestly I finished this feeling sad and angry, sad for the loneliness many are facing and angry at the inequality and huge wealth divide (not just in Nigeria) that many are willing to ignore.
September 15, 2026
Holy heartbreaking 4.8
July 25, 2026
Honestly one of the best books I have read in a very long time. Extremely interesting, showing both sides of a very complex issue and incredibly entertaining. Cannot recommend it enough.
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