Mercari, Japan’s leading online flea market, decided to prevent the sale of ultrasound photos on its platform to prevent people from using them to commit pregnancy fraud.
Selling ultrasound photos of unborn babies on a flea market app is strange, but Mercari never even considered taking action against the practice until one person noticed the high number of ultrasound pics and positive pregnancy tests listed on the platform and posted pictures of them on X (Twitter), asking other users what they thought about it. The post went viral, attracting hundreds of comments, most of which agreed that the two only logical answers were pranking or scamming someone into thinking they had gotten you pregnant. While the first one could be regarded as an innocent joke, the potential implications of pregnancy scamming recently led Mercari to ban the sale of such items on its online flea market.
Photo: Kelly Sikkema
According to SoraNews24, ninshin sagi, which directly translates to “pregnancy fraud” in Japanese, is the act of a woman pretending to be pregnant in order to demand money from a man they had previously been intimate with. The scammer then either requests money to terminate the pregnancy or blackmails the “father-to-be” if they are married. Apparently, items like ultrasounds, photos and positive pregnancy tests are frequently used by scammers.
Although there is no clear evidence that ultrasound photos are being sold on flea market platforms like Mercari for scamming purposes, the controversy stirred by that single X post was enough to get them banned on the platform. The company didn’t specify the reason, but it added ultrasound photos to its list of “inappropriate items” that are not allowed to be put up for sale, effective 1 September.
メルカリに妊娠エコー写真とか陽性の妊娠検査薬が出品されてるのってなんでなん？？？ pic.twitter.com/LZr3dEJtEL
— 目頭@四毒抜き生活 (@Awakend_Citizen) January 28, 2024
“I just gave birth recently, and I can’t believe there are mothers out there who would sell those photos,” one woman commented on X.
“I once heard about a girl who borrowed her friend’s ultrasound to stop her boyfriend from breaking up with her. It’s chilling the lengths some people will go to,” someone else wrote.
One thing is for sure, even if online flea markets like Mercari ban the sale of ultrasound photos, if there is a demand for them, people will find ways to sell them.
