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

by Carlos Barragán (Author)

A New York Times Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of 2026 - Named a Most Anticipated Summer Read by USA Today and People

"What [Barragán has] produced feels miraculous: journalism that is simultaneously funny, devastating, wildly intimate, and righteous without veering into moralism." --Kate Knibbs, Wired (Book Club Pick)

"I have found few books lately as immediately compelling as Barragán's, and as a reader, I could not put it down . . . The Yahoo Boys is a tour-de-force." --Jon Lee Anderson

An astonishing 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 journalist Carlos Barragán discovered that his mother was exchanging messages with a supposed American soldier promising to send gold bars to her apartment in Madrid, online romance fraud stopped being an abstract crime. It became painfully personal.

After tracing the messages to Nigeria, Barragán traveled to Lagos hoping to find the person behind the deception. Instead, he encountered a much larger underground economy populated by young men who call themselves “Yahoo Boys”—romance scammers who create false identities, cultivate emotional relationships online, and manipulate victims living thousands of miles away.

Through immersive reporting, Barragán follows four young men navigating temptation, poverty, ambition, guilt, and the promise of fast money. Their stories reveal both the deliberate cruelty of romance fraud and the economic desperation, social pressures, and moral compromises that allow the practice to grow.

KEY FEATURES

• Immersive investigative journalism

• Examines online romance fraud from inside Lagos

• Follows four young men involved in scamming

• Explores the emotional and financial harm experienced by victims

• Investigates the economic pressures surrounding cybercrime

• Examines guilt, ambition, poverty, and moral responsibility

• Connects loneliness in wealthier countries with inequality in Nigeria

• Written by journalist Carlos Barragán

• Hardcover edition

THE PEOPLE AT THE CENTER

• Biggy—struggling with the seduction of quick money

• Chibuike—navigating ambition, temptation, and consequence

• Azeez—a tailor’s apprentice caught between economic hardship and crime

• Richie—haunted by the possible consequences of a long-running deception

• Victims seeking love, companionship, and genuine human connection

• Families and communities affected by the economy surrounding online fraud

THEMES & SUBJECTS

• Romance scams and online impersonation

• Emotional manipulation and financial fraud

• Poverty, unemployment, and economic inequality

• Loneliness and digital relationships

• Cybercrime as a local underground economy

• Masculinity, status, and social pressure

• Guilt, addiction, and personal responsibility

• The moral limits of empathy

• Life in contemporary Lagos

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carlos Barragán is a reporter and researcher for The New York Times based in Madrid. He previously worked as a reporter for El Confidencial and earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. The Yahoo Boys is his first book.

PLEASE NOTE

• This book discusses online fraud, emotional manipulation, financial loss, drug use, poverty, and death.

• The reporting focuses on specific individuals and a particular criminal subculture; it should not be interpreted as representative of Nigerians or Nigerian communities generally.

• Economic hardship provides important context but does not excuse fraud or the harm inflicted upon victims.

• This book examines criminal methods for journalistic and educational purposes and is not an instructional guide.

• Cover artwork and publisher markings may vary by edition.

• Product colors may appear slightly different due to lighting and screen settings.

• Review the available edition and condition information before ordering.

WHY YOU’LL WANT TO READ IT

The Yahoo Boys moves beyond anonymous profiles and stolen photographs to examine the people on both sides of the screen. Empathetic without excusing the crime, Barragán’s investigation reveals how loneliness, inequality, technology, and human longing can become entangled in a global economy of deception.

PRODUCT TYPE

Hardcover Investigative-Journalism and True-Crime Books