Craig’s List Prospective Parent Plea Turns into Adoption Scam

“An eastern North Carolina woman has been charged with scamming a Wilkes County couple by falsely saying she was pregnant and wanting someone to adopt the child she would soon deliver.

Heather Dawn Taylor, 37, of Farmville was arrested Tuesday by the Pitt County Sheriff’s Department and charged with 10 counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. She remains in the Pitt County Jail in Greenville with a $75,000 secured bond.

Pitt Sheriff’s Department spokesman Christy Wallace said Ms. Taylor is also charged with carrying out the scam against a couple in Chicago.

Ms. Wallace said Ms. Taylor contacted the couple in Wilkes and the couple in Chicago after the two couples posted that they were interested in adopting a baby on Craigslist, a classified advertising website.

She communicated with the couples between late January and late March, telling them she needed money for medical, food, housing, travel and other expenses. No adoption agencies were ever involved.

Ms. Taylor sent photos supposedly showing her stages of pregnancy and at least once pretended to be in labor while on the phone with one of the victims.

Ms. Wallace said Ms. Taylor gained over $1,500 from the scam, mostly from the couple in Chicago. She said Ms. Taylor got a phone card from the Wilkes couple.

The couple in Wilkes and the couple in Chicago communicated with each other and notified authorities in late March when they realized Ms. Taylor was talking to both about adopting her baby, said Ms. Wallace.

Authorities aren’t sure if Ms. Taylor contacted other couples who posted on Craigslist or elsewhere that they wanted to adopt a baby, but Ms. Wallace said the investigation is continuing.

In an interview with WNCT in Greenville, one of the victims talked about why she and her husband used the Internet in their adoption search.

“Social media really has become very predominant in adoptions. Agency adoptions can be very expensive, very costly, so that’s why a lot of people turn to social media,” she said.

The TV station reported that Ms. Taylor has a prior charge of identity theft for using her sister’s credit card without her permission.”

Wilkes couple victims in bogus adoption scam

[Wilkes Journal-Patriot 8/16/13]

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