The Romance Scammer Who Made a Small Fortune Posing as a WWE Superstar
A Lagos scammer pivots to impersonating Cody Rhodes online and turns a lonely chat into a steady stream of gift cards and transfers.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The excerpt tracks Chibuike, a young Lagos grifter who moves from failed romance scams to impersonating Cody Rhodes online. By learning the wrestler’s habits and feeding Theresa attention, he turns affection into gift cards, showing how identity fraud and emotional manipulation can scale into real money.
A young man in Nigeria pretends to be a famous wrestler online. He talks to a woman in Ireland who feels lonely, and he slowly earns her trust by sounding caring and real.
It is a bit like wearing a costume in a video game and convincing someone the costume is the real person. The trick works because he keeps chatting, keeps making excuses, and keeps asking for money in small steps.
The story shows that online lies can hurt real people. It also shows why checking who someone really is matters before sending money to a stranger.
Analysis
What the excerpt shows
This WIRED Book Club excerpt, drawn from Carlos Barragán’s The Yahoo Boys, follows Chibuike, a young man in Ikotun, Lagos, as he looks for a way to make money online. He starts with a mix of streetwise hustles and failed scams, but keeps missing the mark until he settles on impersonating Cody Rhodes, the WWE wrestler.
Barragán frames the scam as both practical and emotional. Chibuike learns the routines of the wrestler, watches matches online so the fake identity stays believable, and uses messages, calls, edited ID, and fake “billing” excuses to keep the lie going. The first big break comes when Theresa, a woman in Ireland, accepts his friend request and asks how she can know he is real. He answers with proof, performance, and persistence, then gets his first large payout in gift cards.
How the fraud works
The article shows the scam growing through attention. Theresa is lonely after her husband leaves, and Chibuike exploits that loneliness with constant contact, affectionate messages, and small rituals that create trust. Once the relationship is established, the money requests become more elaborate: frozen bank accounts, medical bills, a fictional daughter, and travel costs for a “come over” trip to Ireland.
Over four years, the excerpt says, he extracts about 78,000 euros. The money arrives in small pieces, often as gift cards that he later converts to bitcoin and then to naira. The piece makes clear that the fraud is not just about technology. It is about identity theft, patient manipulation, and using the rhythms of online communication to keep a victim attached long after the first payment.
Key points
- Chibuike starts out as a struggling young scammer in Lagos before switching to celebrity impersonation.
- He poses as Cody Rhodes and uses calls, edited ID, and wrestling details to make the fake identity believable.
- Theresa, a lonely woman in Ireland, sends gift cards and keeps engaging even after early losses.
- The scam grows through repeated money requests tied to travel, illness, and fake family details.
- The excerpt shows romance fraud as patient social engineering, not just a technical crime.
The excerpt makes the warning signs of romance fraud easy to see, which can help readers spot fake identities, urgent money requests, and emotional pressure earlier. It also shows how careful verification can interrupt a scam before larger losses happen.
The story also shows how durable these scams can be once attention and trust are in place. Even after the first payment, the fraud keeps expanding through new excuses, fresh accounts, and repeated requests that make it hard for the victim to break away.
