Adoption fraud

Adoption fraud, also known as illegal adoption, can be defined as when a person or institution tries to adopt a child illegally or to give up a child for adoption illegally. Common ways in which this can be done include dishonesty and bribes.

Former Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer was a vocal critic of the corruption that the Adoption and Safe Families Act incentivized in all US child protection organizations. She argued that the thousands of dollars in adoption bonuses for every child they adopt out rewards such organizations with seizing children from and thwarting reunification efforts with the children's parents, constituting a rarely-reported and rarely-prosecuted form of adoption fraud.