Carlos Barragán noticed that his mother was feeling lonely and suggested that she download Tinder. He never imagined that idea would open the door to years of pain. Silvia, 55 and divorced for nearly a decade, met “Brian” on the app, a supposed American soldier stationed in Syria who promised to move in with her in Spain. Carlos, an investigative journalist in Madrid, traced his emails and discovered that the IP address was not coming from any military barracks, but from Nigeria. What followed was a four-year journey. He flew to Lagos, entered the Ikotun neighborhood, and there a contact named Biggie showed him the world of the “Yahoo Boys.” He expected to find sophisticated criminals; instead, he found young people with no education or money, also trapped in a network that exploits them. That discovery became his book, and a question that still haunts him: who is really the victim when deception is born of poverty?

Carlos Barragán noticed that his mother was feeling lonely and suggested that she download Tinder. He never imagined that idea would open the door to years of pain. Silvia, 55 and divorced for nearly a decade, met “Brian” on the app, a supposed American soldier stationed in Syria who promised to move in with her in Spain. Carlos, an investigative journalist in Madrid, traced his emails and discovered that the IP address was not coming from any military barracks, but from Nigeria. What followed was a four-year journey. He flew to Lagos, entered the Ikotun neighborhood, and there a contact named Biggie showed him the world of the “Yahoo Boys.” He expected to find sophisticated criminals; instead, he found young people with no education or money, also trapped in a network that exploits them. That discovery became his book, and a question that still haunts him: who is really the victim when deception is born of poverty?