There are several things prospective adoptive parents can do to avoid getting scammed by an adoption agency, adoption attorney or a birth mother.

First and foremost, check out your resources very carefully and ask for references. Ask lots of questions. A good agency or attorney welcome tough questions. One of the best ways to minimize the risk of a scam is to have a good attorney involved who can protect your rights.

Try to have a face-to-face meeting with your birth mother. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a meeting in person with a birth mother is priceless. You will learn a great deal just from meeting in person with your prospective birth mother.

One of the other things you can do is order a copy of the prenatal records. However, make sure you are ordering the prenatal records directly from the Obstetrician and not simply allowing the birth mother to order the prenatal records.

Finally, prospective adoptive parents can also ask the birth mother for a drug screen, a criminal background and employment check on the birth mother, along with checking her out on the internet, i.e. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, to see exactly what type of person with whom you are dealing.

In the end, you have to go with your gut feelings. Your gut feelings are rarely wrong.

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