Nigerian doctor, Chinonso Egemba, widely known as Aproko Doctor, has sounded the alarm over an emerging “cryptic pregnancy” scam targeting unsuspecting women.
He explained that fraudsters, disguising themselves as medical practitioners, administer hormone injections to imitate pregnancy symptoms and later hand victims babies suspected to have been trafficked.
In a post on X, he warned, “There’s a pregnancy SCAM going on: Anybody that tells you that another person cannot see the baby in your womb with an ultrasound scan is about to scam you.”
He added, *“If there’s a pregnancy it would be seen by ultra sound scans. A lot of women are being scammed this way.
“Then they pump them full of drugs to mimic pregnancy and tell them not to do scans. Then produce a baby and give it to the woman. It’s a criminal racket.”*
The issue gained wider attention after Bambam, a former Big Brother Naija star, shared a viral testimony of a woman in her church who allegedly carried a pregnancy for three years and four months, describing it as “God’s miracle.”
This sparked heated debate, prompting Dr. Olusina Ajidahun, popularly known as ‘The Bearded Dr. Sina’ on X, to reiterate earlier cautions about the “cryptic pregnancy” scam.
*“Trust me, the woman in your church is unlikely to have carried the baby for 3 years.
“She was likely injected with hormones to make her gain weight and have pregnancy symptoms like vomiting. Ask her, Her scans were likely done only in one hospital (They will tell her not to go elsewhere).
“On the day of the said delivery, they knocked her & made her sleep with drugs and then gave her a stolen baby.
“It is a cartel of Baby factories that give stolen children to desperate, middle aged to elderly and women longing for children. They tell them it is ‘Cryptic pregnancy.’”*
The “cryptic pregnancy” scam was further exposed by a BBC Africa Eye investigation, which uncovered the exploitation of vulnerable women.
According to the report, fraudsters posing as medical experts administer drugs to create false pregnancy symptoms, instruct victims to avoid multiple scans, and eventually hand them babies believed to have been trafficked.
Investigators also discovered facilities where victims, including teenagers, were detained under harsh and degrading conditions.
Health experts caution that the scheme not only preys on the desperation of women but also extorts them financially with bogus treatments.