The disturbing NBC Dateline story about adoption scams is a disturbing look at how crooks use the web to prey on innocent victims.  Scum like Amy Ost Cumbee was able to freely prey on prospective adoptive parents and commit blatant fraud, not to mention the "emotional rape" of her victims.

This video show Amy Ost Cumbee as she cons some nice people with promises of getting to adopt her baby and shows her asking for hundreds of dollars to feed her non-existent 2 year-old daughter.  This Dateline story only serves to emphasize how law enforcement is unwilling to prosecute these web predators and evil people like Amy Ost Cumbee are free to steal and defraud vulnerable victims.

The great book "Web Stalkers" shows details on this type of scan and shows how people can fight back and protect themselves from the unsavory criminals who populate the Internet.  Often District Attorney offices are confused by web technology, especially when it crosses other jurisdictions, and the Web stalkers book shows examples of how victims have been able to successfully prosecute criminal internet predators.

Web san protection book   

Web scam operators are epidemic as a 20/20 story estimates that there are over 50,000 web predators seeking victims at any time.  This book gets inside the mind of adoption scams and show techniques for bringing adoption scammers to justice.  Also see the book on protection from Cyberstalkers