Preying on Parents
A Picture and a Promise
Update: This report, originally produced in October 2005, spurred California lawmakers to take action, and in September 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation aimed at curbing adoption fraud.
Four years ago Mary Perdue was contemplating her family's future. Perdue was 51, divorced and a machine operator in a factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Perdue had raised two daughters but the idea of having a son had always intrigued her. She considered foster care. But why bring a child into your home, she asked herself, if you were just going to show him the door one day? Then Mary and her daughters discovered international adoption. Expensive, yes. Risky, perhaps. But the child would be part of the Perdue family forever.
So like thousands of other Americans, Mary Perdue and her daughters
started trolling Web sites devoted to finding homes in America for
overseas orphans. The Perdues looked at photos of hundreds of orphans.
And then they saw Victor, a seven-year-old boy living in an orphanage in
Russia.
"He just struck me," Perdue says as she recalls seeing Victor's photo
for the first time. "The real thick head of hair, dimples. A smiley
happy little boy."
Kim Perdue, Mary's younger daughter, saw a future brother in Victor's
blurry digital image.
"He looked like a friend of mine," says Kim. "The write-up said he was
very bright and cheerful, eager to have a family. You fall in love with
the picture, and that's how they get you." .... click here for story
