An American mother was browsing the internet when she suddenly discovered her baby son was being offered up for adoption on a London website.
Photos of Jenni Brennan's seven-month-old son Jake had been put up on a Craigslist advert.
"A cute baby boy for adoption," read the ad. "He is very healthy and ready for adoption."
That's got to be a nasty shock. I wonder if she thought, just for a moment "Did I do this? In my sleep, perhaps?"
An investigation has now been launched by the FBI, who believe it could be an international adoption scam.
Jenni thinks her son's photo was probably pinched from her family blog, which she set up to share photos of her kids with friends and family.
Most of us now put up pictures of our families somewhere on the internet and you don't really know who might use them and for what purpose. But you certainly don't expect to see your baby for sale.
The FBI reckons the scammers were using the photo to try to con hopeful adoptive parents into sending them cash.
Jenni replied to the advert via a Yahoo account, pretending to be interested in adopting the baby. She was told to send £200 to an address in Cameroon.
The scammers told her the baby boy had been born in Canada and was now in an orphanage in Cameroon.
Jenni, 30, a social worker, said in the Telegraph: "I never thought something like this would happen.
"I've always heard about stuff like this happening. But I never thought it would enter our world. We were stunned when we discovered he was being offered for adoption in London.
"I know Jacob wasn't being physically harmed and no one was going to come to our door and try to take him, but I felt like his likeness was being violated."
The Brennans will now use privacy restrictions on the blog to stop unauthorised people viewing it.
Jenni said she wanted to warn other families. "We don't want this to happen to anyone else," she said.
There is still an adoption ad up on Craigslist with the same text, but no picture of Jake.
Are you careful about putting photos of your kids on the internet? Do stories like this make you think twice?
Source: The Telegraph