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Officials investigate bizarre adoption ad

Submitted by Kerry on Sat, 2008-10-04 17:46.

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KIWI FILM star Keisha Castle-Hughes has been unwittingly dragged into an international baby adoption scam, which is now being investigated by New Zealand authorities.

by Catherine Woulfe - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 05 October 2008

 

A picture of the famous young mother is being used by a person calling herself Brenda, who is advertising a baby for adoption on New Zealand classifieds website adoos.co.nz.

Adoption advertisements are illegal in New Zealand (unless placed by a child welfare officer) but the adoos.co.nz site is hosting about a dozen with taglines such as "will you be my new parents" and "good and healthy baby for adoption". Would-be parents are instructed to email for details.

CYFS' Adoption Advisory Service says it is investigating the advertisements.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Development Niels Reinsborg says anyone seeing similar advertisements should report them to the police.

Ministry of Consumer Affairs spokeswoman Liz Stretton points out that the advertisements are written in poor English and are very likely fake.

They could be a bid to collect email addresses, and eventually money, from people desperate to be parents.

"They'd be aiming to extract money. They'd be building up to people wanting to send money to get more information, or meet the baby, I would say."

The ministry runs a site called Scamwatch that tracks online scams and provides advice, but Stretton says it has not come across anything like this before.

Neither had Castle-Hughes' agent, Gail Cowan. She said the use of her client's picture was "just extraordinary" but did not want to comment as by the time she checked the website, the advertisement had been pulled.

The picture of Castle-Hughes was taken at the New Zealand premiere of North Country, in January 2006.

It appears under the tagline "affectionate baby for adoption" and is followed by this explanation: "I am brenda and i have with me my beautiful baby here which i really want to adopt to a loving and caring parent due to circumstances at beyond my reach if you really know you sincerely wanting to adopt my baby and take like your own baby, then do not hesitate to mail me for more information".

The Star-Times emailed this advertiser but did not receive a reply.

No other contact details are provided other than the baby's location Auckland.

No other stars are featured in the NZ baby advertisements but two pictures of real children are used one toddler wears a red T-shirt, is holding a bottle and sitting on a couch; the other, a baby, is wearing a hat and sitting in a bright green swimming pool toy.

The advertisement for this girl calls her "Kyvonna" and says she is from Cooks Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. But the picture, and international phone number provided, also appear on a baby advertisement on the United Kingdom's Adoos site this time giving the location as Caddington, Bedfordshire.

The phone number is also provided on an African church ministry's advertisement, which says it has "healthy children" available for adoption.

Readers are asked to call the number to get in touch with the ministry's adoption lawyer in the UK.

adoos.co.nz did not respond to the Sunday Star-Times' request for comment, sent through their online query function on Wednesday. The site provides no other contact details.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaystartimes/4716468a6442.html

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Advertising adoption on websites

Submitted by Kerry on Sat, 2008-10-04 18:09.

Adoption advertisements are illegal in New Zealand (unless placed by a child welfare officer) but the adoos.co.nz site is hosting about a dozen with taglines such as "will you be my new parents" and "good and healthy baby for adoption". Would-be parents are instructed to email for details.

In America, we have Adoption.con and other websites dedicated to the selling pitching advertising of parents and children.  Who determines which agencies/AP's are good, safe and reputable is anyone's guess, but it's clear to me, money is money, no matter how it's made.  I find this especially sickening when the objects of desire are children.

Oddly enough, just yesterday I was reading an article, "Judge: Gay couple's suit against Adoption.com can move forward" and I found the advertising policy of this huge adoption-friendly website a bit confusing and tricky:

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton rejected arguments that Adoption.com had free speech rights to exclude same-sex couples from its paid listings, which are designed to match birth mothers with qualified parents.

"Plaintiffs are not seeking to place any restrictions on what defendants are permitted to say or to compel them to say anything," Hamilton wrote in an 81-page ruling issued March 30. "It is the discriminatory conduct that is at issue here — defendants' refusal to do business with the plaintiffs." 

In allowing the lawsuit to go to trial in June, Hamilton also dismissed the company's claim that California anti-bias policies did not apply because Adoption.com is based in Tempe, Ariz., where state laws don't bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or marital status. 

Glen Lavy, a lawyer for Adoption.com, said Tuesday he was surprised by the judge's position that California law could control "what an Arizona company publishes on its Web site that is based in Arizona, that someone from California cannot visit without asking for the information from an Arizona server."

[More information about this case can be found here:  BUTLER V. ADOPTION MEDIA, LLC No. C 04-0135 PJH]

I wonder if adoption website owners are aware that the people they should be serving is CHILDREN, and not adults?

In any case, it seems finding a baby or a parent isn't all that difficult today, now that there are all sorts of active websites eager to cash-in on the action.

cost of advertizing

Submitted by Niels on Sat, 2008-10-04 20:09.

I couldn't figure out what the cost of advertizing for PAP's is on adoption.con, but these are the rates for businesses to be listed in their directory.

Premium - $99/month

Features:

  • One Category & One State
  • Name and Address of Business
  • Description of Services
  • Website Link, E-mail Link
  • Your Company Logo
  • Street Map to Your Office Link
  • Phone, Fax and Toll-free Numbers

    Marquee - $199/month*

    All Premium features, plus:

  • Guaranteed Top Seven Listings in Chosen State/Category
  • Listing Showcased on First Page
  • Listing Viewed Every Time
  • Not Subject to Alphabetical Order

    *Marquees start at $199/month.
      Based on availability.

    Pinnacle - $300-750/month*

    All Marquee features, plus:

  • Single Listing at Top of Page
  • Listing is Bold, Contrasting Color
  • Popular Categories: Agency, Attorney, International, Homestudy
  • State & Country Listings Available

    • Missing link

    Submitted by Kerry on Sat, 2008-10-04 20:29.

    I wonder how many agents/lawyers could afford an ad that would ensure child safety?

    Oh silly me... that's not what's being sold in adoption communities, is it???

     

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