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Emotionally Crushed
A couple of years ago, Belinda Ramirez read an Internet adoption listing from Laura and Anthony Valois, a young New York couple who had been trying in vain to have their first child. Ramirez quickly contacted them from her home in Corpus Christi, Texas, telling them they could adopt her unborn baby. Excited, Laura and Anthony spent weeks communicating with Ramirez. They got regular updates on her pregnancy and even listened on the phone to what they were told was the baby's heartbeat on a fetal monitor.Before long, Ramirez began asking them for financial support, like rent money. That took the Valoises by surprise. But they were willing to do a lot to ensure a smooth birth, including sending more than $1,000 to Ramirez over several months. Laura and Anthony finally drove to Texas so they could be on hand for the birth. But once they arrived, Ramirez gave them the runaround, avoiding their daily phone calls. After three weeks, the couple drove back to New York -- empty-handed and emotionally crushed.
They later learned Ramirez had been bilking about ten other people, in states ranging from California to Ohio to Florida, for such things as Wal-Mart gift cards that she said she needed for prenatal vitamins and maternity clothing. From start to finish, it was a scam. In fact, Ramirez was never even pregnant. In January she was sentenced to 24 months in prison without parole on charges of mail and wire fraud.
"When you find out you can't have children, it's just devastating," Laura Valois told a Texas TV station. "But when somebody intentionally does this to you, it's 15 times worse."
This is one of the lowest scams around, masterminded by sleazy people who rip off couples looking to open their hearts and homes to an unwanted child. These swindlers target victims of an adoption system that can be so invasive, demanding, expensive and slow that the idea of bypassing the red tape is almost irresistible.
Advocates like Lee Allen of the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) stress that the process ensures legitimate adoptions are safe and well supervised. That's absolutely true. Still, adoption laws and standards vary from state to state, and can open the door to predators and scam artists. "The adoption industry operates with less regulation and consumer protection than your neighborhood health club," says Trish Maskew of Ethica, a nonprofit that promotes "ethical adoptions."
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