Carlos Barragan

He bought very fancy clothes, rings, etc.

But also he would give away his money to the community.

And the way they do it is just they go to hotels and just suddenly the whole community is looking at them because they irradiate power, reckless power.

For example, Chiwuke, who was the guy who was scamming the Irish woman.

He worked in a water factory, bagging bags of water before getting into the scam.

And for one year and a half, he made less than the 300 euros he received from the Irish woman in one day.

So the incentives are really hard.

And that's why there are more and more young men doing this, especially since the pandemic when inflation hit really hard in Nigeria.

Yeah, like the word, they call themselves Yahoo boys because of the email service back in the early 2000s.

And the word Yahoo, and they pronounce it like that.

It's very well known in Nigeria.

And I think what I found most fascinating while researching for this book was that they have a very mixed view of the money that they are bringing and their activities.

I found many of them, many of the elders think that this is ruining their image

you know, because there are also racist stereotypes about Nigerians being scammers.

And, you know, it's important to know that this is just a small part of the country.

But at the same time, there are other people who are like, well, they are bringing money to the country.

And, you know, back in the day, the white people stole from us, they enslaved us.

So it depends who you ask.

But at the same time, the community is facing, is receiving money in the short term, but in the long term is creating

all sorts of tensions because all these young men suddenly, they don't want to work.