In early 2022, journalist Carlos Barragan arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, with an unusual goal: to find his mother’s scammer. Barragan’s mother, like countless others, fell for an online romance scheme, where an “American soldier” named “Brian” almost convinced her to send him money so he could ship her bars of gold. Online money-making schemes have grown fast and far-reaching, and Barragán sought to write a book about how the global loneliness epidemic leaves people vulnerable to exploitation via the internet and social media.
4v.,But after arriving in Lagos, where he traced the scammer’s IP address, and peering into the lives of “yahoo boys”—young, impoverished Nigerian men for whom scamming is one of few means to gain social and economic capital—the direction of Barragan’s work changed. Told through the individual stories of four young men from Lagos, The Yahoo Boys (9 hours) is a nuanced and devastating portrait of desperation, on the parts of both the scammers and the “magas” who fall for their scams.
Barragán interweaves anecdotes with insights into Nigeria’s colonial history and its current inflation crisis. His writing is clean and engaging, and as personal as it is informative, with each chapter centering a different yahoo boy. Narrator Nathan Luwa is phenomenal, especially with dialogue. The style of The Yahoo Boys translates particularly well to audio; Luwa’s delivery makes it perhaps even more enjoyable than reading the print version. Listeners will be riveted by the stories of Biggy, Chibuike, Richie and Azeez, and by Barragan’s expansive perspective on scamming and contemporary society.
Read our starred review of the print version of The Yahoo Boys.