"In The Yahoo Boys , Carlos Barragán takes us on a remarkable journey into the world of Nigerian scammers. Written with an astonishing degree of immersive detail, we get to know a group of young Nigerians who adopt false identities online for the purpose of wooing lonely, real-life Americans in order to extract money from them. I have found few books lately as immediately compelling as Barragán's, and as a reader, I could not put it down. As an unexpected fresh take on the bewilderingly quicksilver world we live in, The Yahoo Boys is a tour-de-force." --Jon Lee Anderson, author of To Lose a War and Che: A Revolutionary Life "If The Yahoo Boys were merely a picaresque tour of the world of Nigerian scammers, it would have been worth it for the entertainment value alone. In Carlos Barragán's hands, however, this is a technically sophisticated, emotionally acute, and sociologically wise exploration of a shadow economy driven by devices, loneliness, and global inequality. It's an enviable feat of reportage and writing--as intrepid as it is sympathetic." --Gideon Lewis-Kraus, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of A Sense of Direction " The Yahoo Boys is a fascinating and important exploration, one that is full of warmth and empathy.

Carlos Barragán has constructed something that is both intimately personal and globally relevant." --Dipo Faloyin, author of Africa Is Not a Country "Carlos Barragán traveled to Lagos, Nigeria in search of the con artist who had romanced his divorced mother and found himself submerged in the sleepless, hard-partying world of the Yahoo Boys--a subculture fueled by music, booze, and drugs, as well as poverty and ambition and even love. Barragán writes with impeccable empathy about both the scammers and their lonely heart victims to produce a compellingly readable exploration of the psychology of the romance scam." --Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy and Daughters of the Bamboo Grove "Carlos Barragán has nailed it, capturing the mystery of internet romance scamming. He is a remarkable ethnographer, filled with empathy for both victimizers and victims: impoverished Nigerian adolescents full of dreams, and his own mother, who yearns for love and companionship. Most importantly, we learn that both sides of this tragic global equation suffer deeply. I wish all anthropologists could write as grippingly, empathetically and clearly as does Barragán." --Philippe Bourgois, author of In Search of Respect.