December 24, 2018

Amount: Unknown

A North Carolina woman has scammed several people into sending her money with the belief that she would put her baby up for adoption, despite the fact that she was never even pregnant. She posted on several social media and adoption websites stating that she was pregnant and wanted to put her baby up for adoption. She would ask potential adopter couples to send her money for food, doctors' appointments and housing. She procured positive pregnancy tests by using the urine of a friend and used those tests to receive Medicaid benefits from the Department of Social Services. She also paid a pregnant friend $20 for an ultrasound image in the fraudsters name, so she could send the fraudulent images to her victims. The investigation revealed that at least 18 people had been defrauded by the fraudster. She has been sentenced to a maximum of 64 months in prison with 3 years of supervised probation.