Looking For Your Next Great Read? Introducing The WIRED Book Club

This book starts out

with something completely insane happening to its author.

I think it might actually be the best book ever written

about online scamming.

It is The Yahoo Boys by Carlos Barragan.

Carlos's mom came home and said she had a boyfriend,

but Carlos quickly realized

that what she actually had was a stranger on the internet,

pretending to like her and stealing all her money.

The next step that Carlos took after telling his mom

that her boyfriend was fake was something very unusual.

He actually straight up flew to Nigeria

and tried to find her scammer.

He ended up falling in with a group of young Nigerians

who make their livings by ripping off lonely Westerners.

Carlos ended up writing a whole book about this,

and he totally could have dragged these people,

especially considering what they, one of them,

did to his mom.

But instead, he brings us this funny, devastating, intimate,

really humane, well-rounded look at these people's lives.

It honestly feels like a miracle that this book exists,

which is why I'm very delighted to say

that it is the first pick for WIRED's new Book Club.

We would be delighted if you joined the Book Club

and followed along as we read The Yahoo Boys together.