Thread by @CarlosBarraganT

In 2015, my mother fell in love online with an American soldier who was, in fact, a Nigerian romance scammer.

Seven years later, I travelled to Lagos to search for him, immersing myself in the world of "Yahoo Boys."
magazine.atavist.com/the-romance-sc…

Today, I published part of the story I’ve been working on for the past year and a half in the @atavist magazine—the best of the best longform journalism publications in the US.

magazine.atavist.com/the-romance-sc…

@atavist My mother is intelligent, dedicated and has a close circle of friends—different from the conception I had of who might be susceptible to romance scams.

Since I discovered she was scammed, I’ve always asked myself the same questions: How? Who? Why?

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@atavist During the early stages of the pandemic in Spain, my mother fell into a bout of depression. Each time she told me about her loneliness, I would wonder whether it was a similar feeling that had made her so susceptible, four years earlier, to her scammer.

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@atavist In 2022, I decided I wanted to find Brian or, at least, understand why he did it.

I travelled to Nigeria in March 2022 to interview dozens of people: everyone from Yahoo Boys to police officers, academics, and journalists.

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@atavist I spent ten days living with Biggy, a 29-year-old Yahoo Boy who makes his money scamming Americans.

He showed me his conversations with his victims and taught me the basics of this growing billion-dollar industry.

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@atavist According to the FTC, Americans lost $1.3 billion to romance scams in 2021—an 80% increase since 2020 and 6x more than 2017.

But this is only the amount reported... After interviewing dozens of Yahoo Boys and scam victims, I’m convinced that the (real) numbers are much higher.

@atavist "Inflation is crazy. Prices are skyrocketing. The only thing in Nigeria young people can do to survive is joining Yahoo. No office work can give you the kind of money that Yahoo will give you," a Yahoo Boy told me.

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@atavist ‘A Romance Scammer on My Sofa’ is part of the book I’m writing about the search for my mother’s con artist, including different stories of Yahoo Boys and romance scam victims (hello, literary agents!)

If you’re a romance scam victim, I would love to hear your story (DMs open).

@atavist Thank you so much to everyone at @atavist, especially the editor-in-chief @SeywardDarby who believed in the story from the get-go and improved it tremendously with her edits and insights ,and Kumé Pather, who drew these mesmerizing illustrations.

@atavist @seywarddarby This is the first time I’ve published something this personal. It’s also the first time that I’ve written something this long in English. Thanks to everyone who has supported me, from the scholarship program @BecariosFLC, to my professors at Columbia and my writing colleagues.

@atavist @seywarddarby @BecariosFLC Thanks also to Bukky Omoseni (@BukkyOmoseni), my fixer, friend and partner.

And thanks, most of all, to my mother for being brave enough to allow me to tell her story.