But what am I supposed to do with all these prenatal photos of my kids cluttering up the house?

It’s always amazing what you can find on Japan’s leading flea market app Mercari. Over the years, we’ve seen everything from curses to overpriced Zima. Little did I know that you can even purchase other people’s ultrasound photos there, or at least, you could until they decided to ban the practice.

This, of course, begs two questions: why ultrasound photos are being sold online, and why the selling of said photos would need to be banned. It all started when a Twitter user posted a screenshot of various ultrasound photos up for sale on 13 August and remarked, “What else could they be used for but pregnancy fraud?”

▼ Although the most recent tweet went especially viral, people have been noticing this for years. This person not only found ultrasound photos but “novelty” positive pregnancy tests for sale.

In Japan, ninshin sagi, which directly translates to “pregnancy fraud,” is the act of a woman pretending to be pregnant in order to demand money from a man they previously had sex with. For example, a woman could meet a man on a dating app, have sex with him, then contact him weeks later with the news, possibly accompanied by authentic ultrasound photos of their new lovechild. The scammer could then either request money for an abortion or use the pregnancy as blackmail in the event the man is married.

There is no evidence that these photos are sold for the purposes of committing fraud. I admit, I can’t think of any other realistic reason, but at the same time, what parent would sell a picture of their unborn child, especially on the basis that it’d be used to scam someone? And even if the parents did decide to take that step due to financial hardship, I think they’d charge a little more than the prices of around 2,000 yen (US$14) that were shown in some tweets on the topic.

▼ This one is only going for 900 yen, but as the tweet points out, it’s actually an ultrasound of a heart rather than a fetus. Possibly someone trying to scam a scammer.

Regardless, Mercari appears to have decided it better to err on the side of caution and added ultrasound photos to their list of “inappropriate items” that are not allowed to be put up for sale, effective 1 September. They don’t specifically give a reason for the move, except that such sales are prohibited in accordance with their Marketplace Fundamental Principles.

Readers of the news online also seemed to feel the exact reasons for selling ultrasound images online were less important than it just feeling plain wrong to do in any case.

“I don’t care what the reason is. It’s just wrong to sell those photos.”
“I just gave birth recently, and I can’t believe there are mothers out there who would sell those photos.”
“I had no idea things like this were being sold. It’s kind of scary.”
“While these things need to be regulated, Japan has to improve its economy so people don’t feel the need to sell their kids’ ultrasound photos.”
“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.”
“Prohibiting the sale will not eliminate the supply and demand, and doing so will just drive the market more underground.”

According to legal experts, if you suspect you’re the victim of a pregnancy scam, the first thing to do is confirm that the pregnancy is real. So, it could be said that by having these photos sold openly on Mercari, it would be a lot easier to find out if someone’s is fake, especially since the app lets you do image searches and find previously sold items.

In the end though, it’s probably best that ultrasound photos are not as easily acquired for whatever reason, and that Mercari stays on the straight and narrow, selling legit items like money and McDonald’s French Fry Snack Makers.

Source: Mercari, IT Media, Yahoo! Japan News
Featured image: Wikipedia
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