Why I went looking for mum's love scammer

When Carlos Barragan's mother matched with a handsome US soldier on a dating app, the prospect of love and companionship was enticing. Their relationship quickly intensified and she relished the attention. Less than two months after meeting online, her suitor, 'Brian', was asking to move in with her in Spain.

Brian claimed he had been serving on operations in Syria and said he would send her gold bars he had discovered in a terrorist cache. It sounded too good to be true, and of course it was. Carlos and his brothers repeatedly challenged their mother about Brian. Eventually, she allowed Carlos to trace his emails, revealing they had originated from an IP address in Lagos, Nigeria. The discovery was devastating for her, but for Carlos it sparked a new obsession. Who was behind the messages? How had someone managed to manipulate his mother, a successful dentist living in Madrid, with a promise of love?

Determined to find answers, Carlos embarked on a journey spanning thousands of miles. Along the way, he met many scammers. They were not the sophisticated organised criminals he had imagined. Instead, many were lonely, struggling people with few opportunities for legitimate work. Some earned large sums of money through fraud, gaining status within their communities, yet were often vulnerable to scams themselves. Carlos found himself conflicted. The more time he spent with the scammers, the more sympathy he felt for them. But he never lost sight of the harm they caused. They were still criminals, exploiting vulnerable people and, in some cases, doing so in remarkably inventive and devastating ways.

One person Carlos came to sympathise with was Aziz, a teenager who briefly became involved in scamming before abandoning it when his grandmother threatened to disown him. The photo shows Carlos standing in the centre with Aziz to his right and Aziz’s mother to his left. Carlos is clearly quite a bit taller than both. They are indoors; behind them is a doorway with a sheet hanging instead of a door. Aziz and his mother are in patterned T-shirts and Carlos' is plain white. They are all looking straight at the camera with happy contented expressions, suggesting they are comfortable in each other’s company.

Presenter: Tommy Dixon
Producer: Vibeke Venema, Julian Siddle

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Photo Credit: Carlos Barragan