Family Law, Health Care / Medicine, Kids

Even Attorneys Are Prey To Surrogacy Scammers

Attention, lawyers: Listen to the skeptical voice in your head telling you when something sounds too good to be true.

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If you’ve been watching the world lately, you’ve probably asked what the heck is wrong with people.  Unfortunately, assisted reproductive technology (ART) law is no different.  As a hot new area of law — and an area that pulls at some of our most sensitive heartstrings surrounding infertility, family, and babies — surrogacy is also the new area for scammers.  Last week, I wrote about one scammer heading to prison after taking money from hopeful parents with false promises.  But that’s just one way scammers have gotten in on the surrogacy action.

What If I Just Pretend To Be A Surrogate?  Recently, a fake “surrogate” in India claimed to be abandoned by the intended parents of the child she was carrying.  She made up a story that because the baby was a girl, and because the parents only wanted a boy, they left her high and dry.

A police investigation was opened — not because of the alleged abandonment — but because pre-birth gender determination is a crime in India.  (Obviously, stopping discrimination based on gender is great thing, but not even being able to know the gender is a bit more debatable. No gender reveal parties?!)  Although the woman had medical records indicating that she was indeed a surrogate, those documents contained several fishy items.  For example, they showed that the embryo transfer took place at a hospital that never had the requisite medical facilities to perform such a procedure. (IVF is complicated stuff; you can’t just store embryos in the lunchroom freezer.)

Ultimately, DNA testing revealed that the woman and her husband were in fact the genetic parents of the child.  So what happened?  The couple had initially wanted to abort the pregnancy. But then they contacted a fertility doctor, and were told that if the woman pretended to be a surrogate, she could be paid for the baby.  The doctor even convinced another couple to support the woman during the pregnancy, by lying to the other couple and saying that the woman was an abandoned surrogate.  That couple could then become the parents to the baby.  Diabolical! But the scammed potential parents got suspicious and ran the other away.

Wow, what a terrible scam.  And if the second couple hadn’t gotten suspicious, it could have been quite an expensive and heart-breaking situation.

Attorneys Are Easy Prey.  Surrogacy has also opened the door for a new flavor of a classic financial scam.  Remember when you found out you inherited millions from a prince in Nigeria?  That was awesome!  Too bad they needed you to pay the taxes on it before getting the money.  And even worse, too bad it was just a scam.

Well, a similar scam has emerged where a couple “hoping to become parents through surrogacy” — often saying they’re from South Africa or the Philippines — needs an attorney to handle legal work and hold the related funds in escrow.  And they want you! You may know the feeling of thinking, “Sweet, a client!  I’m a total rainmaker.”  Of all the worst scams in the world, the absolute worst must be tricking lawyers into thinking they have a potential client.

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Six-Figure Escrows.  To be fair, attorneys do frequently hold significant funds in escrow for surrogacy clients.  It’s not uncommon for intended parents in such an arrangement to transfer six figures to an escrow company, or for an attorney to hold in escrow the compensation and reimbursements that will be owed to the surrogate during the pregnancy.

The Tricksters Are Incredibly Smooth.  It is clear that the scammers have invested the time to know how to make their story very believable.  One attorney who fell prey to the scammers agreed to talk to me about his experience on the condition of anonymity.  The attorney had some experience in ART law when he was contacted out of the blue by one such scammer.  The attorney’s assistant scheduled a simple consult between “Richard” — the scammer — and the attorney after receiving a very believable email asking for help on a surrogacy contract.  The email hit on all the key questions a knowledgeable ART attorney would ask — was there an agency involved, what fertility clinic would be used, what was the genetic make-up of the embryos, was the potential surrogate married, did she have kids, etc.  In short, it was impressively researched.  The attorney spoke with “Richard” on the phone.  He told me that Richard “seemed normal and asked pertinent questions — he knew all of the surrogacy lingo.”

Richard then explained that he needed to transfer funds for the attorney for him to hold in escrow temporarily.  That way he could provide proof to the South African embassy of his commitment to the U.S. surrogacy process for him to receive a visa.  (Which, FYI, is not a thing that happens.)  He signed an engagement letter and even sent a $45,000 check.  Shortly after the check cleared, the attorney heard from “Richard” that his visa had been denied, and that he would like the $45,000 returned. As a diligent attorney (and, after all, the funds had cleared), he did so.  The next day the attorney heard from the bank that issued the check, warning of fraud. Apparently, the scammer had forged someone else’s check and mailed it to the attorney.  As the attorney told me, “The funds were returned to the issuing bank.  ‘Richard’ had forged a check and taken someone else’s money to pay me.”

The attorney “felt betrayed and totally tricked by this con artist.” In good news, the attorney’s bank refunded the money to him, because it had shown the funds as cleared.  But amazingly, the scammers won, making off with the $45,000 from the attorney’s bank!

So for all of you ART attorneys, listen to the skeptical voice in your head telling you when something sounds too good to be true.

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Ellen TrachmanEllen Trachman is the Managing Attorney of Trachman Law Center, LLC, a Denver-based law firm specializing in assisted reproductive technology law, adoption, and estate planning, and Co-Director of Colorado Surrogacy, LLC, a surrogacy matching and support agency. You can reach her at babies@abovethelaw.com.

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