A recent investigation has revealed that scammers posing as doctors are luring women with promises of “miracle fertility treatments” that cost hundreds of dollars.
A report by BBC Africa Eye said a disturbing fertility scam has been running in Nigeria where illegal clinics are tricking desperate women through false pregnancies.
Nigeria has one of the highest birth rates globally and women who are unable to conceive face immense societal pressure to get pregnant. To avoid the stigma of infertility, many of them resort to desperate measures. (Also read: As ‘digital arrest’ cases surge, know ways to detect a fraud attempt)
Mystery injections used on women
When BBC investigators went undercover as couple seeking fertility treatments, they found fertility clinics with fake doctors offering to help them get pregnant with a mysterious treatment that costs a lot of money and included concoctions and injections.
The BBC reported that after the treatment their stomach would swell up and they were told they were pregnant. The fake doctors also forbid them to visit hospitals or get sonograms to check on the pregnancy. One woman claimed to have “carried” the child for about 15 months.
Where are the babies coming from?
When it’s time to “deliver” the baby, women are told labour will only begin once they are induced with a “rare and expensive drug”. After the couple pays for the drugs, the scammers sedate the women and they wake up with a Caesarean-like incision mark on their bodies. Others said they are given an injection that causes a hallucinatory state in which they believe they’re giving birth.
Either way, the women end up with babies they are supposed to have given birth to. (Also read: IIT Bombay student gets fake threat of ‘digital arrest’, loses ₹7 lakh)
The other side of the coin was discovered after a raid by state health authorities on one such clinic which has found to be housing women against their will, some as young as 17. The women were coerced into selling their newborns. The babies would then be presented to the “pregnant” women as their children.
