Paternity Fraud is Serious and Widespread, But Incidents May Go Unpunished
SAVE
May 15, 2025
The problem of paternity fraud has been recognized for many years. Paternity fraud is believed to be widespread, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom. Adverse mental health consequences often follow when a person discovers their true parentage. In addition, the seriousness of the problem will increase in the future as customized medical therapies become more widespread. (These are therapies that are tailored to the unique genetics of a particular patient.)
One unfortunate recent development is the growing brazenness of fraudsters. In the past, the fraud was usually “just” a lie. In recent years, however, we are seeing some women go to extreme lengths to perpetrate paternity fraud, including forging documents and pictures.
Given the seriousness of the problem, states should take action to protect all parties involved, both the defrauded, falsely-identified male, as well as the children. States already have testing requirements in which newborns are tested for a variety of medical conditions. It would be easy to add a DNA test to the battery of tests that are already being run.
Lawyers should also consider adding language to premarital agreements that states DNA tests will be performed on every child of the marriage.
Scope of the Problem
The exact scope of the problem remains unknown, perhaps because certain constituencies are trying to minimize or even suppress information about the problem. However, the information that has been reported suggests the problem is widespread. According to one article, “[a]t 23andMe, those types of calls [about paternity surprises] are so frequent that preparing for them is integrated into the company’s months-long training program.”
Following are two articles about the prevalence of paternity fraud:
- Paternity fraud is ‘like a Pandora’s box’ and ‘one of society’s last taboo subjects’
Campaigners say the true rate of paternity fraud – the intentional misidentification of a child’s biological father – remains unknown
Mirror, April 8, 2025
https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/family/paternity-fraud-statistics-uk-dads-35002112
Statistics on the percentage of men affected by paternity fraud in the UK vary dramatically according to different studies. Figures vary, with a 2018 study from the University of Warwick estimating 3% and a 2021 study from the University of Oxford suggesting 1%.
Conversely, in one striking study by DNA Clinics, a subsidiary of the BioClinics Group in Salford, looking at 5,000 results randomly selected from January 2014 to June 2016, found that a staggering 48% of the men tested were not the biological father.
2. Mommy’s Little Secret
The Globe and Mail, December 14, 2002
https://canadiancrc.com/newspaper_articles/Globe_and_Mail_Moms_Little_secret_14DEC02.aspx
Some peg the range at 5 to 10 per cent; others, such as Jeanette Papp of the University of California at Los Angeles, feel that 15 per cent is reasonable for the Western world, even if there is no hard evidence. “It’s hard to do studies on these things for ethical reasons,” says Dr. Papp, director of genotyping and sequencing in UCLA’s department of human genetics. “I mean, how do you tell people what you’re really looking for?”
A British survey conducted between 1988 and 1996 by Robin Baker, a former professor at the University of Manchester, confirmed the 10-per-cent figure. That seems high to skeptics such as Dalhousie University geneticist Paul Neumann, although even he admitted that “my colleague, who’s a woman, tells me women have no trouble believing it. . . . It’s the men who can’t.”
Bernard Dickens, a specialist in health law and policy at the University of Toronto, said that in another British example, the non-paternity rate was three times that.
In the early 1970s, a schoolteacher in southern England assigned a class science project in which his students were to find out the blood types of their parents. The students were then to use this information to deduce their own blood types (because a gene from each parent determines your blood type, in most instances only a certain number of combinations are possible). Instead, 30 per cent of the students discovered their dads were not their biologically fathers.
Mental Health Effects
These five articles document the severe mental health consequences of paternity fraud:
- When a DNA Test Shatters Your Identity
“Each person comes into our group thinking they are a freak.”
The Atlantic, July 17, 2018
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/dna-test-misattributed-paternity/562928/
2. Surprise DNA Results Are Turning Customer Service Reps Into Therapists
Bloomberg, December 19, 2018
At 23andMe, those types of calls are so frequent that preparing for them is integrated into the company’s months-long training program. The most common issue, said Hillyer, is when a customer’s presumed father doesn’t show up on a test as the genetic dad. But sometimes mothers or siblings are a surprise, too.
3. After A DNA Surprise: 10 Things No One Wants to Hear
Severance Magazine, June 19, 2019
https://severancemag.com/after-a-dna-surprise-10-things-no-one-wants-to-hear/
Mind-blowing DNA revelations are becoming so common that some DNA testing companies have trained their customer service staff representatives to respond empathetically.
4. Home DNA tests can lead to shock and trauma, but mental health resources are scarce
1 in 5 Americans has spit in a tube and learned that their ancestors hailed from Greece or they have a cousin in Texas. But DNA tests can also dig up family secrets, such as an affair or insemination.
Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 28, 2021
https://www.inquirer.com/health/home-dna-tests-trauma-mental-health-resources-20211028.html
5. Discovering your presumed father is not your biological father: Psychiatric ramifications of independently uncovered non-paternity events resulting from direct-to-consumer DNA testing
Psychiatry Research, May 2023
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178123000938
Direct-to-consumer DNA tests provide information on ancestry and family relations. Their increased use in recent years has led many to discover that their presumed father is not their biological father, a non-paternity event (NPE). We aimed to explore and quantify the psychiatric effects of discovering one’s father’s identity was misattributed. We distributed questionnaires in a private online community of individuals who learned they were NPEs.
Questionnaires included clinical scales assessing depressive, anxiety, and panic symptomatology as well as background and personal details regarding participants’ NPE discovery and demography. A total of 731 people participated.
Results demonstrated increased levels of depression, anxiety, and panic symptoms relative to controls. Multiple factors influenced such effects, including demographics, background information, family members’ reactions, and personal reactions. We identified a worsening relationship or attitude toward the mother as a risk factor for worse mental health. The ability to openly discuss the discovery and acceptance of it were identified as protective factors.
This is the first paper to explore the psychiatric sequelae of discovering misattributed paternity in a large cohort. This unique psychosocial stressor is likely to become more common as direct-to-consumer DNA tests gain popularity, requiring the attention of mental health professionals.
Legal Consequences
Recent accounts reveal that women who engage in paternity fraud may escape meaningful legal consequences:
- Woman indicted for fraud, other charges after accusing former ‘Bachelor’ star of getting her pregnant
12 News, May 6, 2025
PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that a grand jury has indicted a woman who a judge said falsely accused a former star of “The Bachelor” of getting her pregnant with twins.
Laura Owens sought a paternity case against Scottsdale resident and former “Bachelor” star Clayton Echard in July 2024. Echard categorically denied the allegations and stated the two never had sexual intercourse. Owens later claimed she had a miscarriage but a family court judge ruled her claim was false and referred Owens’ actions to the county attorney’s office for review.
Maricopa County Attorney’s Office investigators said Owens altered an ultrasound image, fabricated a pregnancy video and lied multiple times under oath about the pregnancy. She’s been charged with one count of fraudulent schemes, one count of forgery, four counts of perjury and one count of tampering with physical evidence.
Judge Julie Mata was the family court judge who presided over the hearings regarding the original paternity claim. Mata issued an unprecedented 19-page ruling after the case, determining Owens knowingly presented a false claim. She also wrote that Owens has a pattern of similar, if not identical, behavior.
Echard previously told 12News he has gotten to know some of the other men Owens has allegedly accused of impregnating her.
2. Mother, 26, who tricked ex-boyfriend into believing he was the father of her child by forging paternity test results avoids prison
Daily Mail, April 15, 2025
A 26-year-old mother who forged paternity test results and lied to her ex-partner about him being her child’s father has avoided prison.
In April 2019, Beth Fernley told Ryan Hampson she was pregnant and was unsure about who the baby’s father was, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
On Tuesday, Gareth Roberts, prosecuting, told the court that Fernley had asked Mr Hampson for £300 towards a DNA test.
After this, she sent him screenshots which she claimed were from company EasyDNA and showed there was a 99.9% probability he was the father.
Mr. Hampson purchased items for the unborn baby and resumed a relationship with Fernley, who he had been with for four years before they broke up in early 2019, the prosecution said.
He was at the baby’s birth, named on the birth certificate and purchased a house with Fernley in 2020.
The 26-year-old later forged another letter which claimed the company had made a mistake and he was not the father, the court heard.
But when Mr Hampson contacted the firm he was told they had no record of the tests.
3. After Ancestry.com Raises Paternity Questions, Pa. Appeals Court Orders Genetic Testing in Child Support Fraud Claim
“We hold that to apply the doctrine of paternity by estoppel under the circumstances of this case would punish appellant, who ‘sought to do what was righteous’ by assuming parental duty of child, and reward mother, who might be guilty of perpetrating a fraud,” King said.
The Legal Intelligencer, January 9, 2023