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Mom Finds Her Kid's Photo Used in Online Adoption Scam

by Warren Riddle on August 3, 2009 at 04:02 PM

We've reported on the Missouri family who discovered that a photograph they'd posted online as a holiday greeting card was being used as an advertisement in the Czech Republic. More recently, a Massachusetts woman experienced a similar shock when a good samaritan alerted her to a personal photo that had been plucked from the Web, and was also being used for someone else's monetary gain.

According to WCVB TV5, though, the circumstances surrounding Jenni Brennan's violation of privacy were much more frightening than an advertising ploy. Some time ago, Brennan received an e-mail from a stranger stating that a Craigslist scammer had been using an image of her son Jake as part of an adoption scheme. The message included a link to the Craigslist ad, so Jenni sent an e-mail to the account associated with the posting. She discovered that for a mere $300, she could begin procedures for the adoption of her own son, who, according to the listing, was born in Canada and living in an orphanage in Cameroon.

Brennan alerted the FBI and the Massachusetts Attorney General's office to the photo, which had been lifted from a family blog. In response to the incident, Yahoo! has disabled the e-mail account of the fiend associated with the ad. Brennan has also taken measures to protect the privacy of the family blog, which (along with adding watermarks) is good protocol for anyone who wishes to post personal pictures on a Web site. [From: TheBostonChannel and CNN]

Tags: craigslist, family photos, FamilyPhotos, photos, privacy, scam, security

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