As a hopeful family looking to grow your family through adoption, you need to be aware of adoption scams.
Finding a pregnant mother who is interested in pursuing adoption is one of the biggest parts of the adoption process, and there are people who prey on the emotions of adoptive families.
Knowing what an adoption scam looks like and what to ask a prospective birth mother you’re interested in working with can help eliminate the possibility of heartbreak and financial loss down the road.
Adoption scams can be perpetrated by a woman reaching out to you or an unlicensed, unverified professional looking to take advantage of you for personal gain, typically financially.
Examples of an adoption scam can include:
- A woman pretending to be pregnant and deceiving you about her intent to place her “baby” for adoption.
- False wait times, unrealistic expectations and misleading cost quotes from unlicensed professionals.
As an adoptive family, here are some ways to protect from adoption scams:
Choose a Reputable Professional
One of the best ways to avoid an adoption scam is by choosing a reputable, licensed adoption professional.
Adoptive families that pursue an independent adoption can complete the journey themselves but are more susceptible to adoption scams.
From networking, advertising and verifying everything yourselves, vetting prospective birth mothers independently can be difficult if you don’t know what to look for. Reputable professionals should be able to answer any and all of your questions about adoption.
Here are some examples of questions you can ask to avoid a bad situation such as a professional who can’t follow through with the services they offer, or even worse, an adoption scam:
- How many families do you have waiting?
- What’s the breakdown of your fee structure and schedule?
- Does your contract expire?
- What happens to the funds I have already spent in the case of an adoption disruption?
- Are you licensed?
- How many women considering adoption are you working with, and how many adoptions do you complete each year?
As a full-service, national adoption agency, we can help you avoid adoption scams with our extensive experience with adoption while having the comprehensive services needed for your adoption.
We can help protect you from adoption scams because, as a licensed professional, our services are regulated and annually verified by the state to reassure you that the services we offer are legitimate.
Get to Know the Prospective Birth Parents
Whether you are using an adoption professional or not, take the time to get to know the birth mother.
It should be a back and forth between you and her. As much as you want to learn about her, she’s choosing the adoptive family for her baby and should have plenty of questions about what type of family she’s placing her baby with.
If you are worried about an adoption scam when contacted directly by birth parents, then ask them to speak to your adoption professional.
If they are serious about adoption, then they will have to work with your professional for the journey ahead.
Take Notes
Taking notes is a good way to keep track of things if you are concerned you’re involved in an adoption scam. While getting to know a prospective birth mother, you can take notes on your conversations, from information about them and why they’re interested in adoption to the progress of the pregnancy.
If you start to become uncomfortable or think some of their answers raise red flags, then looking back over these notes can help you determine if there’s anything inconsistent with their answers that could indicate an adoption scam.
Don’t Transfer Money Directly
When it comes to financial support, it’s always provided by you to cover to all of the adoption-related expenses for a prospective birth mother.
Common adoption scams related to the financial support can be avoided by making these payments through your adoption professional.
Talk to Others
Adoption scams aren’t just targeting you, they’re targeting all types of adoptive families, hoping to prey on their excitement to be able to adopt. By talking to others in your situation through support groups or online forums, you can stay up to date about adoption scams going around.
