Romance scams are no longer a Nigerian side hustle — they're a global industry

Carlos Barragán, author of The Yahoo Boys, is going live with Wired's Kate Knibbs to answer questions about the people behind the catfishing accounts that have drained billions from our abuelas' bank accounts.

The Yahoo Boys are the original internet scammers. They started in Lagos in the 1990s, sending fake love letters and investment pitches to Western women. Over the decades they evolved — from phishing emails to romance profiles, from phone scammers to AI-generated voices and deepfake video calls. What began as individual hustles is now a coordinated industry.

Barragán brings the on-the-ground perspective: he's tracked these operators from Lagos call centers to their overseas bases, mapped the supply chain of fake profiles and rented phones, and written about how these scammers exploit the same human instincts — loneliness, trust, the hope for something better — that we all feel. The Yahoo Boys didn't invent the con; they perfected it for the internet age.

Why this matters for us: las tías are still sending money to strangers online, and the scammers are getting better at the performance. Knowing how this industry works means knowing what to look for.