In 2000, Tina Johnson, a San Diego-based Internet adoption broker, exploited two hopeful adoptive couples. After Johnson had placed Kiara and Keyara, a pair of twin baby girls, with Richard and Vickie Allen, their birth mother took them back and gave them to Alan and Judith Kilshaw, a British couple that offered Johnson a higher fee for the twins. The Kilshaws then flew to Arkansas, adopted the babies under the state’s lenient adoption laws, and renamed them Kimberley and Belinda.

When Johnson’s scam was revealed, an Arkansas judge nullified the adoption on the grounds that the Kilshaws did not meet the state’s residency requirements. In addition, the Allens had not lived with the children long enough to make a legal claim their custody. Without any legal guardians, Kimberely and Belinda were placed in foster care.

This Internet...