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Mom Finds Her Kid on Sale on Craigslist
A Massachusetts mother wasn’t expecting to find her seven-month-old in the center of an international adoption scam. But all it took was an e-mail to a Craigslist poster, and a picture of her bouncing boy filled her screen.
Her kid was on sale via Craigslist.
Only according to the post, he was a Canadian citizen stuck in an orphanage in Cameroon. He was listed as very healthy and ready for adoption. To add a little more international mystery – the post claimed to be from London, where they said you could send $300 to kick off the adoption process for a “cute baby boy.”
He’s absolutely adorable. And also very much at home with his parents in Massachusetts. Not to mention not Canadian. Or up for adoption anytime in the near future (or ever).
Naturally, the photos came off the family’s blog. Which will have plenty of people atwitter about shutting down family blogs. But while this whole thing is sick and twisted (and I feel for the Brennans that their child is very literally being used) – I’m more upset that someone’s out there preying on people who genuinely want to adopt a child than I would be about the use of a photo. And it is still out there – Yahoo has shut down the e-mail account used by the faux poster, but Craigslist in the UK still has the post up and available for viewing.
Despite this newscaster’s warnings of the dangers of the Internet, there was no time when little Jake Brennan was in serious trouble. His mom didn’t even know his photo had been co-opted until she got an e-mail from a friend who’d learned the photo was being used (not sure how – the photo wasn’t actually put up on the Craiglist listing. Jenni Brennan had to e-mail the poster to procure a photo of the child supposedly up for adoption).
I can’t blame Jenni Brennan for her anger at the circumstances, and applaud her following up and reporting the whole mess to authorities. But would you do as she has and shutter the family blog as well?
Image: Craigslist
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11 Comments
[...] http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2009/08/02/mom-finds-her-kid-on-sale-on-craigslist/ [...]
Adam R Sweet (celticagent) 's status on Sunday, 02-Aug-09 23:05:01 UTC - Identi.ca commented on Aug 02 09 at 7:05 pm[...] already wrote about this one, but the mom who saw a picture of her own child on Craig’s List is the weirdest thing I’ve heard in [...]
Morning News - Mike Pence Hates Stimulus, Democrats | Strollerderby commented on Aug 03 09 at 9:30 amRose commented on Aug 02 09 at 3:14 pmThis is one more reason not to post your children’s photos online.
Sarah commented on Aug 02 09 at 4:26 pmThe scam is awful. But I don’t see how the infant pictured was harmed by it, so don’t see the point in removing family photos from the blog.
diera commented on Aug 02 09 at 5:01 pmI agree with Sarah. It’s a little freaky, but how was the child harmed? It kind of seems like magical thinking to me to equate misuse of your child’s photo with danger to the actual child.
Marj commented on Aug 02 09 at 10:34 pmI wouldn’t shutter my blog because of this…I would shutter it because I am fond of my privacy. My online photos are not for the general public, they are only for family & friends. Why is it that privacy is now regarded as unnatural and weird?
Sierra Black commented on Aug 02 09 at 11:41 pmThat’s totally creepy. I’m not sure how I’d react if something like that happened to me, but I’m not planning to shut down my blog because it happened to someone else. As many people have said, the little boy wasn’t hurt, or ever in any real danger.
bettywu commented on Aug 03 09 at 1:38 amPrivacy is not unnatural and weird. Hysteria is. If you’d rather keep your life to yourself, best to you. If you’re concerned about strangers seeing your child, don’t let them leave the house. They can be photographed anywhere. A photograph doesn’t make your child a target or make them vulnerable (and…vulnerable to what exactly?)
amandashea17 commented on Aug 03 09 at 12:01 pmNothing on the internet is private. No matter how ‘private’ you think it is.
Robyn commented on Aug 05 09 at 1:07 amIt’s not about the child being hurt – the poster was running a scam, which hurt other people. Something similar happened to a friend of mine, actually. A person used a photo of her daughter to solicit funds so he/she could “adopt” her from the orphanage in Haiti or somewhere.
The best thing to do is to watermark your photos. Then they can’t be used in manners for which they weren’t intended. I do have a blog and post photos without watermarks, though I’ve thought about using them. I don’t post very many pics.
GP commented on Jan 30 10 at 3:08 amIf someone was to take a photo of you in the street, would this be putting you at danger? If they were to upload it onto a website, would that now be a danger? People need to stop banging on about the internet being a danger….it’s the safest place available, you mostly use it in your own home! If people are worried about their privacy, this is a different matter and if you care about it, don’t put it in a public domain. The internet is a free forum and people saying that it is dangerous is the most dangerous thing of all because then a minority of idiots will get backing to regulate it.
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