A review of The Yahoo Boys, a deeply reported book on four online scammers in Lagos, Nigeria, exploring how and why they scam and the local impact of the trade
Nigeria's “Yahoo Boys” have industrialized romance scamming, reflecting and distorting modern hustle culture in the face of collapsing economic prospects.
Today my first book, THE YAHOO BOYS: Love, Deception and the Real Lives of Nigeria's Romance Scammers (FSG), is finally out in the US. The book follows four love scammers in Lagos as they scam lonely Westerners while dealing with the worst economic crisis in Nigeria in a [image]
Some Nigerians are angry at this book by Carlos Barragan, as if they did not spend decades glorifying internet fraud in their songs, movies, cultures and communities. As if there aren't well known and respected celebrities who are known internet fraudsters. As if these fraudsters
When I see headlines like this, I can't get angry. For decades, we've sung and danced to music that celebrates online fraud; from “Yahooze” to “Maga don pay” to “Able God”. So why should I get angry when the mirror is turned back on us?
“Industrial-scale operations make up a part of the fraud economy, but as Carlos Barragán illustrates in The Yahoo Boys, his deeply reported and richly empathetic account of four scammers in a poor suburb of Lagos, gains aren't only being made at the top.” Thank you to @bloomberg