$5,000 Online Baby-Naming Contest Revealed As Hoax, ‘Pregnant Mom’ An Actress
Last week, The Inquisitr covered a story about a mom who had agreed to let the Internet choose her baby’s name, to the tune of $5,000. The story seemed unbelievable to readers who thought no one would ever let someone pay them for the rights to name their own child. Turns out, they were right.
The “mom” who claimed to be the winner of the Belly Ballot contest was actually a paid actress, according to recent reports. The Los Angeles website LAist initially questioned the validity of the contest, saying that the mother, Natasha Hill, looked remarkably like 26-year-old actress Natasha Lloyd. The hoax was eventually admitted by Belly Ballot’s co-founder, Lacy Moler.
Belly Ballot is a website that allows friends and family members of expecting parents to vote on their favorite baby names. Belly Ballot recently came to the press with news of a contest that allowed women to “sell” their baby-naming rights to the Internet. In exchange for $5,000, the winner would sign a contract giving up rights to name their child. The baby would then be named by Internet users who could vote on their favorite baby name.
The winner claimed to be three-month-pregnant Natasha Hill, a single mother who would use the prize money to pay off debt and start a college fund for her unborn baby. She was reportedly rooting for the name James.
But after the LAist began poking holes in Hill’s credibility, Moler admitted to Today Moms that the story was all a hoax, meant to bring in publicity.
“We came up with the idea for the contest and we knew it would be controversial… But we’re a startup and we wanted to control the situation,” Moler toldToday.
Moler stated that after receiving no applications for the baby-naming contest, Belly Ballot decided to hire an actress to play the winner. Moler would not disclose how much Lloyd was being paid, or any details of their contract. After posting Lloyd as the fake winner, however, Moler notes that applications for future contests of the same nature cam flooding in.
Do you think a contest like this one could happen in the future? Would you take $5,000 in exchange for baby-naming rights?
[Image via Shutterstock]
