Book author answers five questions on Nigeria's romance scam industry

· Investigations · Nigeria

Carlos Barragán, author of "The Yahoo Boys: Love, Deception, and the Real Lives of Nigeria's Romance Scammers," answers five questions about the country's romance scam industry. He spent time with four modern romance scammers in a Lagos neighborhood to understand why they exploit victims. The items give no figures on the scale of the fraud or its proceeds. The piece is an author interview on the social and economic conditions behind a persistent online fraud ecosystem.

Why it matters：It adds context on the human networks behind online fraud, which financial-crime and investigations teams must understand as romance scams spread globally.

Key points

  • The book examines romance scammers known as Yahoo Boys.
  • The author immersed himself in the lives of four scammers in Lagos.

Sources (original reporting)

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