Woman jailed for selling fertility drugs online

Infertility is big business, that is clear to everyone. A Massachusetts woman also realized this, apparently, as she devised a scheme to get her hands on large quantities of IVF drugs paid for by her insurance company, only to proceed to sell them online, through classified ads. When her scheme was discovered, she was sentenced to three years in jail. Heidi Benham was living in Massachusetts and had undergone fertility treatment herself, when she came to an unusual and fraudulent business idea.

Benham obtained fertility drugs by calling specialty fertility pharmacies around Massachusetts, posing as a representative of a doctor's office. She then claimed that a doctor had authorized a prescription or refill, and had the drugs delivered to her home. The bill for the drugs did not, however, go to Benham's home her insurance company, the Blue Cross Blue Shield, footed the bill. After receiving the fertility drugs, this woman then resold them online through classified ads (Craig's List, anyone?) and apparently made about $160,000 in this way. She stayed in business for nearly four years before her fraudulent scheme was finally discovered by the insurance company.

This story does not have a happy ending for Benham, who had since moved to New Jersey. Boston Federal Court sentenced her to three years in jail for her crime. In addition to serving time, Heidi Benham will also have to pay $518,335 to her Massachusetts insurance company. What does this all tell you? Well, my mother was right - crime does not pay! But what's more, this story should serve as a reminder to infertile women needing fertility drugs that they should never buy their medications off the internet. For those buying fertility drugs online, receiving a shipment from a woman like Benham is the best-case scenario, simply because the drugs they get are the actual drugs they ordered. There are many more fraudulent scheme out there trying to sell God-only-knows-what as fertility drugs!