Credits: Nenad Stojkovic / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 2.0.
Marie-José, 82, left her Normandy home one September morning, taking with her two Samsonite suitcases, a photo of her dog Filou, and an unshakable faith in love. She was flying to Abidjan, a city she knew only from Google Images and the fiery promises of Christ, a 28-year-old who had won her over on Facebook with shaky French but a heart, she said, “bigger than the Atlantic.”
And so begins an outlandish story that has shaken the news channels and fueled endless barroom debate. First revealed by the show Sept à Huit, this news item fits into a well-known digital pattern familiar to web gendarmes: romance scams by brouteurs.
Marie-José’s son, a dentist in Fécamp, sounded the alarm. He reported to police the existence of a romantic predator using romantic schemes to swindle his mother. But she refuses to budge. She denies the danger, rejects the accusations, and demands, more furious than heartbroken: “Let me love!”
The Brouteur Phenomenon: A Well-Oiled Machine
In the fast-moving world of romance scams, the brouteur is king. The term, which appeared in Côte d’Ivoire in nouchi (urban slang), means a “gleaner,” a “harvester of wealth.” In practice, it’s a master of romantic copy-and-paste. He copies romantic speeches down to the comma, pastes them into targeted victims’ inboxes, often isolated, widowed, or vulnerable people.
A brouteur worthy of the name can manage up to fifteen "sweethearts" or "cuddlys" at the same time. He juggles identities: UN general, single father, surgeon on assignment. Anything goes to tug at the heartstrings. Then come the steps: phone trouble, sick grandmother, urgent need for money. Affection becomes a cash machine.
In 2023, according to Cybermalveillance.gouv, romance scams exploded. Up 91% from the previous year. The average victim is 68 years old. And losses can reach several tens of thousands of euros. In reality, these people are not just victims of their own gullibility: they are also victims of their loneliness.
A Social Comeback for West African Neighborhoods
Yaya Koné, an anthropologist, has observed brouteurs from cybercafés in Abobo and Yopougon. In Le Journal des anthropologues, he calls it a "reinvention of work." For these young people with no prospects, brouteur work is an economic activity. The word “bara,” which means “to work,” covers both construction sites and cell phones. “If Europe takes our raw materials, we take their grandmothers,” jokes a reformed former brouteur.
This logic is that of an economic revenge fantasy. The North is rich, the South poor. The North is old, the South young. The brouteur turns the established order upside down. He doesn’t sell anything, he “makes people fall in love.” And for some, that is enough to justify what they do.
Here we see a sociology of idleness. Young people trained in digital tools but without jobs. An urban, connected generation inspired by French rap videos and TikTok accounts. They don’t make war, they do “affect-warfare.”
The Legal Investigation: A Late but Necessary Response
Alerted by the media attention surrounding the case, the French justice system responded. The Rouen prosecutor’s office reopened the investigation for abuse of weakness. A rare measure in this kind of case. But what can be done when the victim refuses to see herself as a victim? Marie-José declared: “I’m not stupid, I’m in love!”
The Seine-Maritime police are working with Interpol and Ivorian police. But the obstacles are many. Platforms do a poor job of protecting victims. Money transfers via Western Union are hard to trace. Operation Jackal, launched by Interpol, led to several arrests. But for every head that’s cut off, ten more grow back.
Activists and Brouteur Traps
To fill the institutional gap, some activists are stepping in. YouTuber Méta-Brouteur replies to scammers’ messages and pushes their logic to absurd extremes. Then he exposes them in educational videos to raise awareness among his audience. Others, like Victor Baissait or Sandoz, conduct real online counter-investigations.
Associations such as AVESE support victims. They offer support groups, psychological help, and legal advice. Because the wound runs deep: it’s not just a financial loss, it’s a betrayal of the heart.
Emotional Fault Lines and Disconnected Societies
This case highlights two divides. First, the digital divide. A generation poorly trained in the dangers of the web, still marked by instinctive trust. Then the emotional divide. Because at bottom, why did Marie-José fly to Abidjan? For a taste of the exotic? No. Because she needed to be seen as a woman, still, at 82.
Western society is aging but isolating people. It pushes its elders into sanitized care homes and abandons their romantic imaginations. The web, for its part, has no age barriers. It promises everyone a second chance.
To Love, Anyway
Marie-José’s story is a bittersweet farce. A 21st-century farce with a modem and Western Union transfers. It is also a social warning. We must do a better job of prevention, education, and support. But above all, we must learn again how to surround our elders.
Brouteurs do not thrive in a vacuum. They profit from our collective failures. Fighting this crime also means changing how we see old age, late-life love, and each person’s place in a hyperconnected society.
Marie-José wants to love. And that concerns us all. Because at the end of the day, brouteurs or not, we are all looking for one thing: not to grow old alone.
PS: All photos are illustrative… any resemblance would be coincidental