South Carolina ? A South Carolina woman accused of promising couples she would be their surrogate mother has been charged with bilking at least six people out of $14,000, police said Thursday.

Jessica O’Donnell, 28, used the Internet to lure couples desperate to have children, prosecutors said. She was charged with obtaining money under false pretenses and was being held Thursday on $140,000 bail.

According to investigators, O’Donnell told people to send sperm in a plastic cup and use ice packs and a cooler to preserve the fluids. She said she would then have a friend who is a nurse inseminate her.

She claimed to be a nurse, and told them her husband, a soldier, had been killed in Iraq, authorities said. Police found several coolers at her home.

O’Donnell’s husband, Daniel, 28, also has been charged with obtaining money under false pretenses, said Maj. John Murray of the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office.