Surrogate Scammed by a Surrogacy Agency? Warning Signs You Cannot Ignore
You’ve made the incredible decision to become a gestational carrier, but something about your current program just doesn’t feel right. Communication is spotty, contracts are confusing, and the support vanishes the moment you ask difficult questions.
If you feel you are being scammed by surrogacy agency as a surrogate, that nagging feeling is a warning sign you can’t ignore.
So, let’s break down the biggest surrogacy agency red flags for surrogates so you can protect your family and pivot to a safer, medically-managed program.
Key Takeaways
- Unethical programs often exploit carriers by hiding fees, delaying payments, or using confusing line-item compensation packages that result in less pay.
- Failing to properly vet intended parents is a dangerous practice that can put the baby and the carrier in severe legal and emotional jeopardy.
- Major warning signs include restricted communication with the intended parents, pressure to sign contracts quickly, and zero medical oversight during hormone injections.
- If you feel unsafe or unsupported, you have every right to look elsewhere and transfer to a reputable, OB-managed program like Physician’s Surrogacy.
The Nightmare Reality: When Surrogacy Goes Wrong in the News
You might think that severe exploitation in the fertility industry is rare, but recent news stories prove otherwise. The reality is that an unethical program can cause unimaginable emotional and legal distress. Unregulated agencies often cut corners to maximize their profits, leaving the women carrying the babies to deal with the devastating fallout.
The California Surrogate Custody Battle
Recently, the news has been filled with heartbreaking stories of women facing catastrophic situations due to agency negligence.
Take the harrowing case of Kayla Elliott and Alexa Fasold in California, a story that shocked the entire fertility community in 2025.
According to reports from NewsNation and NBC News, the agency involved had allegedly failed completely in vetting the parents before matching them with surrogates.
Kayla was horrified to find out that the baby she had carried for Mark Surrogacy was one of the 21 children put in foster care after the couple was arrested for child abuse. Meanwhile, Alexa who hadn’t given birth to the baby yet, was left fighting in court, desperately trying to protect the unborn baby she was carrying.
When a surrogate scammed by surrogacy agency negligence finds herself in this kind of legal nightmare, the emotional toll is completely devastating.
As Kayla told News24, she felt entirely lied to and betrayed by the professionals she trusted. This high-profile custody dispute highlights exactly why rigorous, uncompromised screening of intended parents is an absolute necessity, not an optional step.
The FBI Escrow Theft Warnings
Another massive issue that destroys journeys involves devastating escrow theft. In recent years, the FBI has investigated surrogacy scams where unethical agency owners drained millions of dollars from trust accounts. These schemes leave both the intended parents and the women carrying the babies with absolutely nothing.
These bad actors prey on the trust of vulnerable people, siphoning funds that were specifically meant for medical bills, travel expenses, and surrogate compensation.
When a surrogate scammed by surrogacy agency financial crimes realizes her escrow account is empty, she is often left holding the bag for massive hospital bills. These aren’t just isolated incidents; they are systemic failures caused by a lack of strict regulation, which is exactly why you must know how to identify bad actors.
The Big Red Flags: Signs You Might Be at an Unethical Agency
The surrogacy world can be complex, and unethical agencies often mask predatory practices as “standard industry procedure.”
To protect your body and your family’s financial security, you must recognize these red flags before you sign a legal contract—or recognize them early enough to safely transfer.
Financial Deception: The Money Trap
Financial transparency is the absolute bedrock of any ethical reproductive arrangement. The fertility world can be complex, and unethical programs often mask their predatory financial practices.
The “Bait-and-Switch” Compensation
“They promised me $60,000, but after all the hidden deductions and ‘allowances’ I didn’t qualify for, I barely made $40,000,” is a tragically common complaint when a surrogate is scammed by a surrogacy agency.
Ethical surrogacy requires absolute financial transparency. Red flags to watch out for include:
- Presents a high but unrealistic total compensation. Unethical agencies advertise massive “total” compensation numbers to get you in the door, even though almost nobody gets that amount.
- Padding the possible compensation with rare situations. Scammy agencies often pad the compensation with allowances for things you may never use, mergency C-section bonuses, extreme lost-wage caps, twin multipliers, or invasive mock-cycle fees.
At Physician’s Surrogacy, we offer a fixed, transparent compensation package. You know exactly what your base pay is upfront, and you are paid more in the beginning stages of your journey. There is no bait-and-switch, and your funds are always secure in a third-party escrow account.
Delayed Payments and Escrow Issues
Delayed payments are another massive warning sign regarding an agency’s financial stability.
If a program is constantly late on your monthly installments, you should be extremely concerned. If they make you jump through endless hoops to get reimbursed for your travel, maternity clothes, and childcare, it’s a huge red flag that funds are being mismanaged.
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The “Gag Order”: Controlled Communication and Gaslighting
Why would an agency want to strictly control or monitor all communication between you and your intended parents? Often, it’s about controlling the narrative and preventing you from discussing your compensation or poor treatment.
Looking back on the journey, surrogates scammed by surrogacy agency tactics will realize they were completely isolated.
When an agency insists on monitoring every email or text, they may be trying to:
- Prevent you from disclosing that your payments are late.
- Hide the fact that the intended parents paid significantly more than you are receiving.
- Stop a genuine, supportive relationship from forming between you and the parents. If you’re close with the parents, you might realize together that the agency is dropping the ball.
You should never feel like you’re being censored when talking to the people whose baby you are carrying. This toxic environment is one of the biggest surrogacy agency red flags for surrogates to watch out for.
Ethical agencies understand that a healthy, open relationship between you and the intended parents is vital for a smooth journey.
At Physician’s Surrogacy, we facilitate healthy communication norms and provide case managers to support you, but we never act as a barrier to the genuine connection you share with the family you are helping.
Medical Negligence: Cutting Corners on Your Health
Your physical health should never be compromised for the sake of speed, profit, or agency convenience.
Unethical programs often treat the medical process as an afterthought, which is incredibly dangerous. They’ll hand you off to a fertility clinic and leave you to navigate confusing, painful medical protocols completely on your own.
Ignoring ASRM Guidelines
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has strict guidelines for gestational carriers designed to keep women safe. Agencies that ignore these guidelines are prioritizing their bottom line over your physical safety. Common red flags include:
- Exceeding safe delivery limits: ASRM recommends that a carrier should not exceed five total deliveries or three C-sections in her lifetime.
- Violating bodily autonomy: Some programs or clinics may pressure you into scheduled C-sections purely for the convenience of the intended parents’ travel schedule.
- Disregarding physical boundaries: Pushing you into unnecessary surgical complications shows a fundamental lack of respect for your health.
As the nation’s only OB-managed surrogacy agency, Physician’s Surrogacy is fundamentally different. We prioritize your health and safety above all else by going above and beyond standard ASRM guidelines to protect our surrogates.
The “Hurry Up and Wait” Medical Trap
Another major issue is the medical timeline trap. Many traditional programs cause massive emotional whiplash by setting you up for potential heartbreak. The typical trap looks like this:
- Delayed medical clearance: You are matched with an intended parent first, and then forced to wait months for their specific IVF clinic to review your extensive medical records and schedule a screening.
- Unfair rejections: If the clinic rejects you for a minor, fixable anomaly (like a small polyp), you are dropped immediately.
- Wasted time: You are forced to start the entire emotional matching process all over again, wasting months of your life because you weren’t given upfront medical clearance.
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Legal Traps You Must Avoid
Your legal contract is the blueprint for your entire journey, and it must be ironclad to protect your rights, your body, and your compensation.
When you choose a surrogacy agency as a surrogate, evaluating their legal process is just as important as reviewing their medical protocols. Here are four critical legal traps you must watch out for:
- You are forced to share an attorney with the intended parents. If a program suggests using their in-house lawyer to represent both you and the intended parents to “save time,” walk away immediately. This creates a massive conflict of interest. You should have an independent reproductive attorney who is paid to represent only your interests.
- The agency pressures you into signing a massive contract overnight. If they pressure you to sign a fifty-page contract within 24 hours, they’re trying to trap you. Not giving you ample time to review it thoroughly with your independent counsel is acting unethically. Rushed legal work is always one of the major surrogacy agency red flags for surrogates.
- The contract contains vague language about bed rest and lost wages. Unethical contracts will legally demand that you go on strict bed rest if medical complications arise, but they completely fail to guarantee your lost wages during that time. An ironclad contract protects your family’s financial stability if a doctor orders you to stop working, so you aren’t left struggling to pay your own bills.
- There is no clear protocol for establishing legal parentage. A missing or inadequate DNA testing protocol or pre-birth order strategy can cause absolute nightmares at the hospital. Without proper legal steps explicitly outlined, you could be temporarily held legally and financially responsible for the baby after delivery.
These are exactly the kind of nightmare scenarios faced by a surrogate scammed by surrogacy agency tactics and left entirely unprotected.
How to Verify Your Agency and Avoid Scams
When you start digging into these horror stories, it’s easy to become incredibly paranoid about the entire industry. You might even start typing phrases like “physician’s surrogacy scam” into Google just to double-check programs like ours that you come across.
Of course, when you choose a surrogacy agency as a surrogate, you need to make sure the clinic has a spotless record and verifiable credentials.
If you’re actively looking to avoid a physician’s surrogacy scam, here’s how you can thoroughly vet an agency’s claims:
- Real medical directors have public profiles. True OB-managed agencies won’t hide their medical directors; their names, faces, and credentials will be public information.
- You can verify their board certifications online. You can easily look up their board certifications, hospital affiliations, and professional history to ensure they are actively practicing medicine.
- Fake advisors lack active medical licenses. A real physician’s surrogacy scam usually involves fake clinics or “medical advisors” who don’t actually hold active, verifiable medical licenses.
- Buzzwords don’t equal clinical care. Unethical agencies might use clinical buzzwords on their website, but they don’t actually provide any real medical oversight during your pregnancy or coordinate with your local delivery hospital.
At Physician’s Surrogacy, our in-house OB-GYNs are fully licensed, board-certified, and actively manage your care.
We actively encourage you to research our medical team thoroughly so you can feel completely at ease with your decision. We want to prove that any fear of a physician’s surrogacy scam is completely unfounded when working with our verified medical experts.
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What to Do If You Feel Trapped
If you’ve identified these warning signs and feel you’re being taken advantage of, it’s entirely normal to panic.
When a surrogate scammed by surrogacy agency tactics realizes what’s happening, her first reaction is often to just endure the abuse.
But you should remember that your physical health, your family’s stability, and your financial security must come first.
Remember: if you feel you are being scammed by surrogacy agency as a surrogate, you absolutely have options and legal rights. Depending on exactly where you are in the clinical process, here is how you can safely step away and transfer to a much more reputable program:
Transferring Before the Contract
If you haven’t yet signed the legal agreement or begun any medical procedures, leaving is usually a straightforward process.
- You can walk away without penalty. Because you haven’t executed a binding legal contract with the intended parents, you’re generally free to leave the agency.
- Keep your resignation formal and brief. You can formally inform the agency in writing that you no longer feel comfortable proceeding with their program.
- You don’t owe them an explanation. You don’t need to justify your departure if they’ve broken your trust or exhibited major surrogacy agency red flags for surrogates.
Transferring After Signing
If you’ve already signed contracts, the process is a bit more complex, but it’s certainly not impossible to leave safely.
- Consult your independent attorney immediately. You must speak with your independent legal counsel to thoroughly review your specific termination clauses.
- Seek outside legal advice if needed. If the agency didn’t provide you with independent counsel, that’s a massive breach of ethics, and you should find an outside reproductive attorney right away.
- Pause all medical procedures. Your attorney can help you determine your options for safely terminating the agreement before you undergo embryo transfer or take further injectable medications.
Why Surrogates Choose Physician’s Surrogacy Instead
Feeling frustrated with your current situation? It’s time to look for a completely different model of care.
If you’re just beginning your research, Physician’s Surrogacy offers a safer, more transparent path. We know exactly what it looks like when you are scammed by surrogacy agency as a surrogate.
We’ve built our entire program to eliminate the common surrogacy agency red flags for surrogates by prioritizing your safety:
- We are the nation’s only OB-managed agency. This means your journey is overseen by actual medical professionals, not just business administrators.
- You get upfront medical clearance. You are fully medically cleared before you ever match with an intended parent, so you don’t risk being dropped by a picky IVF clinic later on.
- We match you in just one week. Because you skip the agonizing wait times for screening, our average matching timeline is just one week once you’re cleared.
- We offer fixed, transparent pay. We offer a clear compensation structure without confusing line-item tricks, ranging from $48,000 to $75,000 (and up to $95,000 for experienced carriers).
- You can earn fast-track legal bonuses. Carriers who make themselves available to complete the legal contract phase quickly can easily earn an extra $500 bonus for their efficiency.
Protect Yourself and Your Journey
You’re offering a selfless gift to a family who desperately needs your help to become whole. You deserve a program that treats you with respect and prioritizes your medical safety at every turn.
If you feel you’re being scammed by surrogacy agency as a surrogate, don’t settle for less than you deserve. Remember, when a surrogate scammed by surrogacy agency tactics speaks out and leaves, it protects the next woman in line.
Listen to your gut, demand independent legal counsel, and remember that you have the power to take control. Are you ready for a journey where your health and compensation are fiercely protected from day one?
Apply to Physician’s Surrogacy today and see if you meet the requirements for our medically cleared program!
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if I feel my current program is scamming me?
If you feel you are being scammed by surrogacy agency as a surrogate, stop signing documents and pause medical procedures. Contact an independent reproductive attorney immediately to review your contract and safely explore termination options.
Can I transfer to a different program if I haven’t signed a contract yet?
Yes! If you’ve only completed initial applications and haven’t signed a legally binding contract with the intended parents, you’re generally free to walk away. You can leave an uncomfortable program and apply to a reputable, OB-managed team.
What are the biggest warning signs of a bad program?
Confusing compensation that hides your base pay and lacking a third-party escrow are huge risks. Restricted communication with parents and zero medical oversight are also critical surrogacy agency red flags for surrogates.
Why is upfront medical clearance better for me?
Programs that match first and screen later waste your time. If a clinic rejects your records, you lose the match. Upfront medical clearance ensures you’re fully approved before matching, guaranteeing a faster, assured journey.
How do I make the right choice initially?
When you choose a surrogacy agency as a surrogate, prioritize financial transparency and clinical oversight. Look for third-party escrow, independent legal counsel, and a team managed by actual medical professionals.
How much do I actually get paid?
With a reputable team, you’ll receive a fixed, transparent package. Base pay starts from $48,000 and can reach $75,000. Experienced carriers can earn up to $95,000, plus extra benefits and reimbursements.
Julianna Nikolic
Chief Strategy Officer Julianna Nikolic leads strategic initiatives, focusing on growth, innovation, and patient-centered solutions in the reproductive sciences sector. With 26+ years of management experience and a strong entrepreneurial background, she brings deep expertise to advancing reproductive healthcare.
