The Yahoo Boys

Name: The Yahoo Boys
Brand: Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand
SKU: 9781399632195
Price: 39.99 NZD
Availability: OutOfStock

Real Life with the Love Scammers of Lagos

By Carlos Barragán

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Brief Description

When his mother fell for an American soldier who promised to send gold bars to their Madrid apartment, Carlos Barragán found himself with an unexpected window into the shadowy world of online romance fraud. He set off on a journey to find his mother's scammer, but... Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

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An extraordinary narrative nonfiction debut immerses the reader in the lives of a quintessential 21st-century villain, the Nigerian romance fraudster

Description

When his mother fell for an American soldier who promised to send gold bars to their Madrid apartment, Carlos Barragán found himself with an unexpected window into the shadowy world of online romance fraud. He set off on a journey to find his mother's scammer, but what he discovered was much bigger: a world of young Nigerian men who drag themselves out of destitution by catfishing lonely hearts in the US and Europe, in the process building a dizzying local economy from their phones.

The Yahoo Boys follows four scammers in Ikotun – one of Lagos's poorest neighbourhoods, a scant ten miles from the gleaming heart of the megacity. Through their twisting fortunes, Barragán discovers the psychological tactics they perfect, the economic desperation that drives them, and the moral dilemmas they face.

A work of radical empathy, this astonishing narrative nonfiction debut reveals the human face behind a global phenomenon, and shows how isolation in the West and poverty in Nigeria are just two sides of the same screen.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781399632195

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 11 June 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 304

Collections

Biography & Memoir Carlos Barragán Crime & Thriller Education & Reference Fiction True Crime

About the Author

Carlos Barragan is a reporter and researcher at the New York Times based in Spain. Raised in Madrid, he earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. The Yahoo Boys is his first book.

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The Yahoo Boys

When his mother fell for an 'American soldier' who promised to send gold bars to their Madrid apartment, Carlos Barragán found himself with an unexpected window into the shadowy world of online romance fraud. He set off on a journey to find his mother's scammer, but what he discovered was much bigger: a world of young Nigerian men who drag...

By Carlos Barragán

Hardback

$60⁰⁰

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Out 22 Sep 2026

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