Because DDC is a highly-accredited and trusted paternity-testing lab, we handle large numbers of customer questions every week via phone call, email, and social media. We sometimes get inquiries about the possibility of paternity fraud, especially when a news story on the subject pops up. Here are the top three questions we get asked, along with their answers.
1. Paternity Fraud: What if the mother submits her own DNA and says it’s the father’s? Does that affect results?
ANSWER: No.
In order to manipulate results in the hope of getting a “positive” conclusion on a paternity test, a mother may try to submit her own DNA and pass it off as the alleged father’s. If this type of paternity fraud is attempted, it is caught immediately at the lab level and results will not be issued. For all paternity tests, our lab includes the amelogenin gene in order to verify the gender of all participants, including the alleged father, child, and the mother (if she also opts to participate). Additionally, if the mother participates as herself in the test, but also submits her own samples as the alleged father’s, the two profiles would be identical. The DNA profiles for two separate people can never be the same unless they are identical twins, so the lab would immediately suspend testing and request new samples.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO UNDERSTAND PATERNITY TEST RESULTS >
2. Paternity Fraud: What if the alleged father switches his samples with someone else’s? Does that affect results?
ANSWER: Yes.
When doing an at-home test, a possible father may commit paternity fraud by swabbing someone else’s cheeks and submitting that man’s DNA as if it were his own. This can definitely affect results, since the integrity of the samples has been compromised. If the possible father actually is the biological father of the child being tested, the report would nevertheless show a 0% probability of paternity since it was not his DNA that was tested. Keep in mind that a mother could also swab someone else and try to pass off the sample as her child’s, and that’s also fraud.
This is why DDC does not put names of participants on at-home tests and also why results of at-home testing are not court-admissible—the participants’ identities (and therefore the identity of their DNA) cannot be absolutely verified.
What you can do to prevent this type of fraud: We always give two recommendations.
- If you cannot trust a participant to be honest, insist on being in the same room when doing DNA collection and watch each other swab cheeks and seal those swabs in the kit envelopes. Then, go together to the post office to mail them. Being each other’s witnesses can definitely mitigate the possibility of fraud while giving everyone greater peace of mind.
- If you live in different towns or states and witnessing each other is not possible, it’s best to err on the safe side and pay a little extra for a legal paternity test collection. With this type of test, all participants go to an approved facility to have their DNA collected—wherever they live. The approved DNA collector verified IDs, takes photos of all participants, witnesses DNA collection, and ensures samples are sent to the lab without having been tampered with.
3. Paternity Fraud: Can someone alter their DNA by eating or drinking before swabbing their cheeks?
ANSWER: No.
A person attempting to commit paternity fraud may eat or drink something prior to swabbing, with the hope of affecting results. Kit instructions advise to not eat, drink, or smoke for one hour prior to swabbing cheeks for testing. It’s not because the DNA could “change” by putting something in the mouth, but rather, because the quality of the sample could be affected. DNA cannot be changed by eating or drinking, but a swab contaminated with baby formula or food residue may be too difficult to extract DNA from. If this happens, testing is suspended and no report is issued until the customer can submit new samples. It’s an inconvenience for the customer since it requires extra testing time, but it doesn’t affect results at all.
Final Thoughts about Paternity Fraud
Since 1993, DDC has been providing trusted and accurate paternity testing services—for both peace-of-mind customers and those who need answers for court. We run every test twice, and you can be sure results are accurate for the samples we’ve been provided. We do everything we can on our end to stop paternity fraud dead in its tracks, and encourage customers to do their due diligence as well. It’s the wise and cautious thing to do!
Call us at 800-929-0847: We’re here to help.
Do you have questions or comments about this topic? Share in the comments and we’ll answer.
Hi my boyfriend for years been doubting that his daughter was his!!so I bought the test when he went to do test his baby mother didn’t let him do the test so he was only able to get one cotton swab now he doesn’t even want to try again cause his babymother won’t let him see his child this been a hard situation to swallow I’m all together done
Hi, Jane. His next step might be to contact a family-law attorney to see if the court could compel the mother to allow testing.
I am a father. I have a custody case going on. The judge just told us to provide a dna paternity test. She has not let me seen my daughter in over a year. I am worried she might try to use another child or someone else’s DNA to get a negative result for the DNA test. The judge is leaning towards giving me full custody. I have done my own lawyer litigation. How can I prevent this from happening ? We live in separate towns.
Hello, Michael. You need to do a chain-of-custody legal test with court-admissible results, which you can learn more about here: https://tests.dnacenter.com/paternity-testing/legal-paternity-testing/
This type of test prevents fraud since DNA collection is supervised, photographs are taken, IDs are checked, and samples are submitted directly to the lab by the third-party DNA collector to prevent tampering. I suggest you give our experts a call for more info or to get started: 800-929-0847. Good luck!
Can a mother fake a test. If a child and alleged father are being tested can the mother swab herself and send the sample as her daughter or would the lab know it was not a child sample
Hi, Julie. For at-home testing where DNA is collected at home by test participants, there is no way the lab can know if the mother swabbed herself or her female child in order to manipulate results. This is why we recommend that the possible father and all test participants watch each swab, put swabs in envelopes, and then drop off at the post office.
Hello, i have a question. I had doubts about who the father of my daughter was since i made the mistake to sleep with both of my exes around the same time. I recently sent in a sample of my daughter and one of my exes who i kind of already knew was not the father. I received the results and it showed he was not the father. So now i have no doubt in my mind that my second ex is the father. He continues to deny it. My question is since i already sent in one sample that included my daughter saliva, if i were to send a second one would that affect the results? Ofcourse i would swab my second ex.
Hi, Julie. You should submit fresh samples for your daughter along with the samples for the second possible father.
How do you know if a test result has been rigged. Can the 3rd party print out a test result from the website, how do i know if it is fake?
Hi, Christy. We can only provide information about a test report to test participants. Any participant is always welcome to call in and have the legitimacy of a DDC report confirmed.
Hi, so I am currently 18 and my dad decided to get a DNA test for me. I look just like his two other kids always have since I was a baby but it came back that he wasn’t the father. He lied to me about when he got the results and told another family member and didn’t even mention him wanting to take the test or the results of the test with my brother. The testing center we went to never asked my age they only asked my name and my race but for him they didn’t even ask his race she just checked the box off. He purposely made sure my mom wasn’t there for the testing. I watched the lady swab his mouth and put it in a baggy, swab mine and put it in a baggy but I didn’t see her put it in a envelope and seal it. Is there any possibility there could’ve been a mix up? And if I take the siblings Test with one of my brothers from his side (we have different mothers) and it comes back that he’s my brother that means my test was rigged? And he is my father?
Also he’s the one that suggested this place in a area he grew up in his whole life, at first he couldn’t get an appointment and then he popped up with an appointment out of nowhere with a time everything just seems so suspicious and they didn’t ask for any identification from either of us all they asked for was his card to pay for it.
Hi, Bri. It’s a shame you’re in such a tough spot. I need more information before providing an answer, but the process for testing that you went through isn’t the proper one for legal testing and that raises a red flag. So instead of a back-and-forth here, I suggest you contact our experts directly at 800-929-0847 to see what your best options are.
(Continued) from Jen.
I thought he might have done this (stuck another persons saliva to the inside of his cheek), as he went to the toilet just before we sat and did the swabs. Thank you again ❤️
Did a dna recently with my son and the alleged father but it turned out that he is not the biological father ,my son looks exactly like him ,his characters and even the walking style am really stressed because he is the only person I was with during the time before I got pregnant kindly help me am going crazy
Hi, Faith. Are you absolutely sure the man tested submitted his own DNA for testing? If you are, then you can be sure the result is for him if you used an accredited laboratory. If you did an at-home test and didn’t witness him swabbing himself or if his swabs were not in your custody at any time, then you might want to consider doing a legal test with witnessed DNA collection.