NC Woman Pleads Guilty To Nationwide Adoption Scam, Gets Five Years In Prison

Last week, Wendy George pleaded guilty to 10 counts of “obtaining property by false pretenses” or claiming to be pregnant to defraud prospective parents who are seeking to adopt a baby. But it was all a lie and the Carolina Beach, North Carolina woman was never even pregnant, so the money she took to cover housing costs and medical bills was all a scam.

The Charlotte Observer says that George’s scam started to unravel when a couple from Ohio called the police in North Carolina to check on a woman who was claiming to be pregnant and had contracted with them to adopt her baby after it was born. But it seems that George had posted on adoption websites across the country and making similar deals with other couples like the one from Ohio.

George was receiving funds from several couples for her pregnancy expenses despite the fact that she was never actually pregnant, and the test results she was sending were fraudulent.

Prosecutors say that George went hunting for victims online.

“George found couples on websites like Domestic Adoption Support Network, Expectant Moms Thinking of Adoption and Mommy’s Angels Support Group. George scammed more than a dozen people who thought they were paying George so they could adopt a baby.”

This is not her first time facing fraud charges. https://t.co/P9PYs4oRrj

— Durham Herald-Sun (@TheHerald_Sun) December 18, 2018

During the time that Wendy George was keeping her scam alive, she paid a pregnant friend to get an ultrasound done with George’s name on the images to send to her victims. George also pleaded guilty to defrauding the North Carolina state Department of Social Services who gave her Medicaid benefits when she provided them with a positive pregnancy test.

This is not the first time Wendy George has been convicted on charges of fraud or obtaining property by false pretense. In 2012, George was convicted with her husband of renting out vacation properties online which belonged to others, or in some cases, the properties never really existed.

George, who used several different names on various Facebook groups and Craigslist personal ads, would tell couples she was expecting a baby and was running out of options, reports the Daily Mail. The North Carolina prosecutor managed to round up 16 other people who had sent George compensation of some sort with the promise of adopting her fake unborn child.

The Carolina Beach police arrested George in March where she was at the time on probation for selling drugs. After she services her time in prison, she will have to remain on strict probation for at least three years.