Adoption scam involving aging out children - beware

I would like to spread awareness in the China adoption community that over the past two years, there have been nearly a dozen fraudulent adoptions of healthy older children who are closing to aging outӔ (i.e. 13 years old), mostly from Luoyang orphanage, but not only from there. The scam is described at [url=http://research-china.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-ha-moment.html]Research-China.Org: The "A-ha" Moment[/url] as a new form of adoption corruption that involved orphanages approaching rural residents promising their children better educations if they allowed them to attend "orphanage schools." Once in the orphanage, the children are submitted for international adoption as older, "aging out" children, desperately in need of Western adoptive families. Families who have adopted these aging out kids found out later that they were significantly older, had already aged out (e.g. 16, 17 years old), that their birth dates were changed, and that they had birth families that were still there in China, waiting for their children to study abroadӔ and then return to China and to support them. Articles on this scam can be found on: [url=http://research-china.blogspot.com/]Research-China.Org[/url] [url=http://research-china.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-ha-moment.html]Research-China.Org: The "A-ha" Moment[/url] [url=http://research-china.blogspot.com/2012/04/dark-side-of-chinas-aging-out-orphan.html]Research-China.Org: The Dark Side of China's "Aging Out Orphan" Program[/url] The families who adopted these orphansӔ have had their lives financially and emotionally destroyed. This is not only an economic scam with kind hearted American families being used as involuntary study abroadӔ providers, but it is immigration fraud. These "orphans" should not come here. I have encountered a scam situation myself, during my China adoption process, as I was reviewing the file or an aging outӔ 13 year old boy who allegedly lost both parents at age 7 to a heart attack (mother) and a stroke (father). The boy was described as very studious, intelligent, loved kids and was yearning to have a family again. I was in disbelief when I noticed that the boys height and weight were consistent with the 98th percentile, as it was statistically very unlikely that he was that tall. There were two explanations: Either the height and weight data were inaccurate or the age was incorrect. I launched an extensive research on the internet on incorrect age of Chinese adoptees and stumbled on reports of adoption fraud regarding ғaging out orphans. Adding to this the fact that the probability of two healthy villagers in their mid thirties dying in the same year was very slim, I felt that the boyԒs story was in all likelihood untrue. I became increasingly concerned that this may be fraud and alerted authorities. I learned later that a wonderful family came forward and adopted him, only to find out later that he was in reality 17 years old and that his entire background story had been falsified. I cannot imagine what hard times this family is going through, as they are dealing now with the ramifications of their unfortunate situation. Their story convinced me that this was very real, it was happening and it has to stop. My heart goes out to all the American families who have been preyed upon. Not only are American families victimized, but the tragedy extends to the many children languishing in Chinese orphanages who desperately need adoptive homes. Each scam adoption prevents such a child from finding a home. Some red flags of the aging outӔ scam are: 1. Child is older, e.g. "aging out" and healthy 2. Child is male - not necessarily always but more often than not 3. Child likes to study and is a good student at school 4. Child has a nice haircut, not the typical orphanage style which is "mowed grass" for boys, boy style for girls. 5. Child has lived relatively long with birth family or a "foster family" (who could actually be the birthparents). Grandparents are ailing or have all died. 6. Child was abandoned at an advanced age supposedly, claims to "not remember anything". 7. Being from Luoyang is a red flag, but there are reports from other orphanages. I urge all prospective adoptive parents to be smart consumers and to prioritize logic and common sense. I would like to spread awareness about this scam so that we can prevent it from happening again in future. I further urge to contact an objective third party whenever there are doubts and/or red flags.