Popular Nigerian health influencer, Dr. Chinonso Egemba, widely known as Aproko Doctor, has raised alarm over an ongoing scam targeting women desperate to conceive.
In a post shared on his official X handle on September 15, Egemba 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. If there’s a pregnancy, it would be seen by ultrasound 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.”
His warning resurfaced amid controversy over a viral testimony by actress and former Big Brother Naija star, Bambam, who claimed in a September 14 post that a woman in her church carried a pregnancy for three years and four months before delivery—a claim she described as “God’s miracle.”
Responding to the uproar, another Nigerian doctor, Olusina Ajidahun—popularly known as The Bearded Dr. Sina and co-founder of Priv Health—reposted his earlier January 2023 thread on fraudulent practices marketed as “cryptic pregnancy.”
“Are we ready to talk about one of the biggest scams & frauds perpetrated by some hospitals in the name of cryptic pregnancy? A lot of women have given testimonies of miracle babies that they don’t know are stolen, and no one sees except their doctors,” he wrote.
Ajidahun explained that women are injected with female hormones that mimic pregnancy symptoms such as bloating, vomiting, and swollen legs. They are then shown fake scans and told not to seek second opinions. On the supposed delivery date, victims are sedated, and babies—believed to have been trafficked—are handed to them.
The warnings echo a BBC Africa Eye investigation published in November 2024, which exposed how fraudsters exploited vulnerable women through fake fertility treatments. The report revealed women were injected with hormones, barred from ultrasound scans, and later given trafficked babies. Some facilities even held teenagers against their will.
“It’s a fertility scam that’s ruthless. Women pay large sums for fake treatments… then they are tricked into believing they’re pregnant and sent home with a baby believed to have been trafficked,” the BBC reported.
The renewed spotlight on these practices—sparked by Aproko Doctor’s post and Ajidahun’s warnings—underscores the urgent need for vigilance and stricter regulation to protect women from exploitation.
