Who is Jenny B? Mystery pregnancy cards sent to women across US

Women across the country say they received strange handwritten letters and gift cards from 'Jenny B' in Utah celebrating their pregnancies. The only problem? They're not pregnant - and they don't know a Jenny B

Women across the country have received mysterious cards like this one claiming to be from a friend named "Jenny B" and including hundreds of dollars of gift cards.

Women throughout the United States came home this week to letters from a mysterious “Jenny B” from Utah. The letters were all nearly identical, congratulatory in nature, and otherwise unexceptional — besides the fact that they would soon entwine each recipient in a nationwide mystery.

Jenny B was celebrating the women’s pregnancies with her letters, and gifting them nearly $250 (£194) worth of gift cards to buy some new swag for their babies.

But there was just one problem: many of the women who received the cards said they were not pregnant — and had never met a Jenny B from Utah.

The surprise mail came in the form of a card, the type you would see at any chain convenience store. A cartoon avocado can be seen on the cover with a heart planted on its chest, its imaginary legs crossed and arms up on its hips.

“Holy guacamole!” it reads, “You’re going to avo baby!”

The letters were sent to countless women across the country this week.

Julia Hellman, one of the women who received the card, told The Independent “it's very disturbing that they had my address.”

She said she “knew it was some sort of scam” so she “was not even going to try and use the gift cards, but the fact that there were, like, hand cut coupons made it seem more real.”

Ms Hellman said she received a handwritten letter that read: “Congratulations!!! I’m so excited for you! I hope you like these.” The card featured a heart sign and a signature that read: “Jenny B”.

Young girls and women in the US described the cards as alarming. Receipts that came with the letters totalled $245 (£190). Several women told The Independent the letters had been sent to their mothers, who opened the cards and called their daughters, some fearing they were unexpectedly pregnant.

“They sent it to my parents’ house, so I had to do damage control with my mom,” author AP Hawkins told The Independent after she posted a Twitter thread about receiving one of the cards. “It took some convincing to get her to believe me that this wasn't my weird way of telling her I was pregnant.”

She added: “While it may not be a scam in that the coupons might be real, it still strikes me as somewhat predatory. If it were just, ‘Hey possible soon to be parent, here's some coupons!’, I don't think anyone would react to finding it in their mailbox. But instead it's, ‘Hey friend who is definitely pregnant, here's $250 in gift cards that I bought for you, shop with these companies!’"

Alexis Cruz, who lives in California but said her parents received the mystery letter in Massachusetts, said her mom called “thinking maybe it was a wedding invitation or something”.

“It’s a little strange that they would have my parents’ address for me, and I’m also curious how they got my name and address in the first place,” she said. “But if this really is some marketing promotional ploy, it seems like it wasn’t executed very well since the majority of people writing about it, including myself, aren’t even pregnant.”

There was clearly something much deeper going on with the cards than a woman named "Jenny B" who just happened to have countless friends with new pregnancies that decided to purchase various gift cards in celebration. Instead, it appeared a private company was behind the mass mailing campaign in an effort to promote several of its brands geared towards moms.

Mother’s Lounge is a company that sells “darling car seat accessories” that are “endorsed all over Instagram,” according to its website.

Another website promoting one of Mother Lounge’s brands called “Canopy Couture,” said the product “is one of the many creations of Jenny Bosco in Pleasant Grove, Utah.”

“Although Jenny is currently a full time at-home mother of five children, she's known to spend 40 hours or more per week working on or improving her many Mothers Lounge brands,” the site reads.

The company was behind a similar mass marketing campaign that sent nearly identical letters in February, according to a statement issued by the Surry County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia. The statement said officials spoke with Ben Pierce, the general manager for Mother’s Lounge, and determined the letters were sent by someone named Jeanette Pierce. The mailing campaign “does not appear to be a scam,” the sheriff’s office concluded at the time.

The Independent could not find anyone named Jenny Bosco or Jeanette Pierce associated with Mother’s Lounge on LinkedIn. However, a profile for a Jennifer Pierce in Pleasant Grove, Utah says she is a marketing coordinator at Mother’s Lounge, LLC. One of Ms Pierce’s listed responsibilities is to "expand marketing campaigns and increase reach".

Around the time the Virginia sheriff’s office cleared the mailing campaign in February, the Better Business Bureau saw an increase in online complaints against Mother’s Lounge reviewed by The Independent. The complaints alleged the company was “targeting pregnant women with ‘gift cards’ in the mail.”

One complaint said “gift cards” were sent from someone apparently named “Jen” to the following companies: Eskimo Kids, Little Wanderers, Canopy Couture and Udder Covers.

The Better Business Bureau said it contacted Mother’s Lounge earlier this year “requesting modification or discontinuation of certain practices of the company,” including sending out the “gift cards,” saying the bureau believed this strategy was “questionable”.

It also requested the company stopped a practice of increasing shipping fees from free to $11.97 (£9.27) when using one of the gift cards it provides, as well as to add a return name and address on its envelopes.

Some of those companies were the same featured on coupons sent this week to seemingly random recipients — including some men. What's more, all of the various coupons appeared to trace back to brands owned by Mother’s Lounge.

A phone number for Mother’s Lounge had a voicemail that said it was for a company called Carseat Canopy. A search for carseatcanopy.com led to a website selling products called “canopy couture,” matching the name of the company mentioned in the Better Business Bureau complaint.

When we told a customer service agent on a live chat messaging system that I had received a card from “Jenny B,” the agent replied: “Those were sent by our head of marketing, Jenny B. She sent them out to a few people. If you are unable to use them, please feel free to give them to someone who can!”

The connections continued further. When trying to purchase wholesale items on EskimoKids.com, the site suddenly links to Mother’s Lounge, LLC.

On the About Us page for LittleWanderers.com, the site says it was created by “Jenny Bosco in Pleasant Grove, Utah.”

Another coupon was for Custom Pacifiers, a limited liability company distributed by Mother's Lounge, according to its website.

If Jenny B, who appears to be Jenny Bosco, is in fact the head of marketing for Mother's Lounge as the agent said, that still doesn't explain how the company selected recipients of the letters for its apparent mass marketing campaign.

Scott Anderson, who is identified on his LinkedIn as the director of marketing for Mother’s Lounge, did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. Phone calls made to a number listed for the marketing director were also left unanswered.

One Reddit user by the name "Becca Book" said she spoke with an agent as well, who wrote in a message that "Jenny was given a list by a third party of expectant mothers".

A February post on WhatToExpect.com, a website for expecting mothers, said the writer had received one of the cards and "almost fell for this scam but luckily sniffed it out".

“It kind of looks legit. And who doesn’t have one or multiple Jens in their life?!” the post said.

It continued: “However when you go to the online stores, they have very slim inventory of overpriced products that may actually look appealing. A weird thing you notice quickly is that all of the websites look kind of the same and you may only use a gift card OR promo code, and the gift card does not apply toward shipping. The shipping fees are ridiculous! $13-22 (£10-17) for basic shipping.”

Mother's Lounge did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

Jennifer Bolton, a public information officer for the Utah Department of Commerce, pointed consumers who wished to file a complaint to an agency site.

“I can neither confirm nor deny whether the Division has received any complaints involving Mother’s Lounge,” read a statement sent to The Independent by David Pierson, a records officer for the Utah Division of Consumer Protection. The division cited Utah codes on protected records as to why it was unable to provide confirmation about complaints against Mother’s Lounge.

Recipients of the letters said they were worried about what implications it could have for other women who opened the cards believing they had just received gift cards for soon-to-be mothers.

“For a financially struggling parent to get that letter and think it's real only to go shopping and realise it isn't would be a crushing blow,” Ms Hawkins said. “Not to mention people struggling with infertility. So it's definitely a terrible and weird marketing choice, at best.”