One Michigan teenager made like Yuan Yuan the panda and went in for the long con, convincing her boyfriend, friends and family she was pregnant with triplets and collecting thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts and cash. If you think that’s unbelievable, wait until you hear about the website that helped her do it.
The girl, who lives in Wyandotte, Michigan, had to break some serious news to her boyfriend: She was pregnant! With triplets! Everyone was admittedly pretty freaked out, but the families of both teens soon rallied, and alongside a nonprofit organization, a church group and a Facebook moms’ group, they were able to set the two up with everything they could need to take care of little Ivan, Isabella and Alice, and then some. Only it was all a sham. Triplets represent only about 0.14% of births when they are conceived without assisted reproductive fertility, so this teenager’s natural conception would already be a pretty incredible story.
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The thing is, she did have help “conceiving” the babies. And boy, is it bonkersauce.
Her main method of assisted reproductive technology was a website called FakeABaby, where any enterprising young con artist can go to procure everything they need to trick people into thinking they’re having a baby (or babies), including fake positive pregnancy tests, fake prescriptions, fake ultrasounds and fake “empathy bellies.”
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It’s marketed as a joke site, “Home of the $9.95 fake ultrasound!” and “The best gag gifts on earth.” Which is great if you’re in on the joke, but if you aren’t, it’s a whole lot more egregious. This is a place where you can procure personalized, fake paternity tests and birth announcements.
There is a level where this becomes less of a harmless gag site and more like the perfect enabler for a pathological liar who doesn’t mind upending people’s lives. And yes, it seems like the butt of a cruel joke like this is usually a woman’s partner, who may or may not be terrified, excited or, yes, even bonded to a child they expect will be theirs.
Those are real emotions, as anyone who has ever been pregnant or expecting a child soon can tell you, and for that tumultuous period in life to culminate not with the infant you’ve been preparing for but in your partner saying “ha-ha, JK, but I totally got you!” just seems cruel.
Fake pregnancy jokes can be funny, but they’re rare in the wild. At most, they’re usually just annoying.
But this? This is not that. This is an instance where the girl allegedly procured gifts and cash for her fake pregnancy (which is illegal) and snowed the people who stepped up to support her in a really violating way. She gave her “babies” names. She allowed people to throw her a shower. And when she was about to be found out, she killed those “babies” off. Which is ugly and cruel on its face.
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If there’s a positive, it’s that this young man dodged a bullet — both the incredibly trying life of a teen dad as well as a relationship with someone who has no qualms about toying with him or his family.
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