Mother finds own baby's photo on Craigslist adoption scam

By Kristen Caira

August 3, 2009 / NECN

A Massachusetts mother warned people about the dangers of the internet after finding her own child for sale through a link on the website Craigslist.org.

The family was unknowingly thrust into an international adoption scam.

Jenni Brennan said that her family has blog on which she shares photos and anecdotes of their children. Only, someone took one of those photos and used it in an adoption scam based out of Cameroon.

"No, he definitely not available," Brennan said.

"Never posted it anywhere, never advertised it anywhere -- it's just sort of out there," Brennan said of the blog. "Never felt the need to make it private, because we weren't sharing identifying information about ourselves. It was just photos and blurbs about our day."

The family found out about the scam using Baby Jacob's photo through an anonymous e-mail. After replying to gain more information about the e-mail, the Craigslist posting was shared.

Jenny e-mailed the address listed on Craigslist and received the scam with her son's photo. She said when you hover over the photo, their blog site pops up.

"I really felt angry, felt violated for him. And really felt, as his mother, we should be protecting him," Brennan said.

Brennan said that the most obvious step to prevent being victimized by these types of scams is to make a blog private.

NECN's Kristen Caira reports