I was on vacation last week. I spent part of my time reading Carlos Barragan’s book The Yahoo Boys. Barragan is a Spanish journalist. His mother, a successful dentist, fell in love with a Nigerian scammer posing as an American soldier. Barragan decided to go to Lagos and confront the scammer. He wasn’t able to find that individual, but through dozens of interviews with scammers over several trips to Nigeria, he put together a compelling book.
“Yahoo Boys” is the term widely used in Nigeria to describe young people – mostly men – who scam Americans and Europeans over the internet. The name comes from the webmail addresses they once used. These days, they operate primarily through social media and dating apps. Many pose as attractive young women. Some pose as attractive men. Some impersonate celebrities, or soldiers, or individuals who can facilitate an international adoption. Whatever the details, the goal is to get foreigners to send cash transfers or gift cards. Although many of the scams seem rather implausible, they regularly take in sophisticated victims, including physicians and attorneys. This press release discusses the successful prosecution of a Nigerian romance scammer who extracted $3.5 million from his victims over 15 years.
Many of the scammers are part-timers, dabbling in scamming while in school or working legitimate jobs. In some neighborhoods in Lagos, it seems that as many as seventy or eighty percent of young men are involved in scamming. The most successful scammers work at it full time, often messaging through the night to better mimic the communication schedules typical of Americans. The book tells the stories of a handful of the scammers. I won’t try to summarize the individual stories, but will offer a few reflections about the book overall.
First, the book serves as a reminder of the importance of the rule of law. It seems that the criminal justice system in Nigeria is unable to address scamming to a meaningful degree. Nigeria has established a National Cybercrime Center with the goal of combating online scams and other computer crimes, but victims’ reluctance to report being scammed combined with the difficulty of cross-border investigations means that successful prosecutions are rare. At the same time, the prevalence of scamming may be used to justify police abuses. Many of the individuals interviewed for the book report being physically assaulted by police, being kidnapped by officers, paying bribes, or being forced to open their locked phones. The American criminal justice system certainly is not perfect, but I am grateful to live in a country with relatively high-functioning institutions.
Second, the book is a delicate balancing act. It seeks to explain the scammers’ behavior without justifying it. On the one hand, the author humanizes the scammers. They are, after all, young people with hopes and dreams and fears and families and a mix of personal characteristics. The book depicts their life circumstances, which in many cases are very challenging. On the other hand, the book is clear-eyed about the harm done to the victims, some of whom end up financially and emotionally devastated. One of the victims discussed in the book sends her entire life savings to a scammer. Another eventually fakes her own death to extract herself from her scammer’s web of lies and manipulations.
Third, the book provides insights into what motivates young men everywhere to become involved in criminal activity. Poverty is a factor: most of the scammers in the book come from struggling families and some are in truly desperate situations. Lack of attractive legal employment opportunities is also a consideration. Many entry-level positions in Lagos appear to pay about a dollar a day, far short of what is needed to support a comfortable life. Encouragement from peers is another motivation. There is a scammer community in Lagos. Scammers share scripts and ideas with each other, encourage one another in denigrating and dehumanizing their victims, and sometimes celebrate together after a big score. But for many, scamming seems mostly to be appealing because it is exciting. There is a possibility of a big, life-changing payout at any moment.
Although the book focuses on Nigeria and scamming seems to be widespread in at least some parts of Nigeria, of course it is not unique to that country. There are plenty of scammers in the United States and elsewhere. In fact, Nigerian scammers rely on individuals in the United States and in China to help launder money and convert gift cards into cash. This story reports on an Atlanta man convicted of laundering money for scammers.
I doubt that many Yahoo Boys have been or will be prosecuted for obtaining property by false pretenses or any other offense under North Carolina law. But I still enjoyed reading the book and thinking a bit more deeply about why young people choose to engage in criminal activity.
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