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.