A desperate New Zealand couple who sent cash and "biological materials" to an American woman to be a surrogate mother for the pair have had her arrested.
Audrey Magallon, 31, faces charges of first degree theft at Astoria, 150km west of Portland in Oregon, after the New Zealanders complained to police about an alleged surrogacy scam.
A three-week police investigation revealed that she may have accepted cash to be a surrogate mother but didn't produce a baby, police told the local newspaper.
The New Zealanders contacted Astoria police officer Nicole Riley, and said they had sent cash payments totalling over $US2000 ($NZ2642) and a special container used to ship biological materials, which Magallon had received but not returned.
Magallon had told the victims that she had successfully inseminated herself and sent documentation which appeared to show positive pregnancy tests.
Ultrasound scans from Magallon's own children were forged to look like recent ultrasounds and medical reports were falsified, Astoria Police said in a statement.
Police said there may be additional victims that have not yet come forward.
