Found when we took uh our cameras under cover. 7,000 . This baby was offering her baby for adoption, but was she even pregnant . It look ares like a pillow. What about adoption agencies . Are some as careful as they should be. Im going to say on the form i dont do drugs. Okay. Im actually a correspondent with dateline nbc. Oh. A hidden camera investigation. Heres Andrea Canning with hope and heart break. Adoption can be a time of joy. It was probably the most amazing moment of my entire life. But its also a multimillion dollar industry. Its been unbelievable and eyeopening. The transactions impact peoples lives. It sounds like you are describing buying a house. Right, but its a baby. And the outcome is anything but certain. I would say its all a gamble. Because, for the thousands of families who successfully adopt each year, there are others whose adoptions fail. The pain you suffer is very similar, if not the same, as the death of a child. Tonight you will meet some families whose adoptions didnt turn out the way they hoped. Its hard to know who to trust. Would you say you were the perfect prey . Oh, yeah. With our hidden cameras well do under cover, inside the world of private adoption. I want to get as much money as i can, to be honest with you. Sometimes its hard to know whats real and what isnt. Im trying to find out the truth about whats going on. Are you even pregnant . Chris and amy lemcool had known each other since high school. Newly married they were excited to build a family close to where they had grown up in yuba city, california. But they were struggling. I was pregnant and had a miscarriage about a year after we got married. That must have been heart break ing. It was a terrible experience. After the miscarriage, ten more years of disappointment. Doctors appointments and a failed round of ivf treatment didnt bring chris and amy the well be right back they longed for. Did you find yourself wanting children more and more as you kept facing the this heartbreak . I didder for sure for sure. I never thought about my life without children, never. Chris and amy decided to try adoption. They began looking for a pregnant woman interested in giving up her baby. You can do this a number of ways, through an agency or on your own. Chris and amy hired an attorney who put them in touch with a 24yearold pregnant woman living out of a michigan motel. Her name was heather burgess. Heshed talk about her parents her childhood. It was normal conversation. She put you at ease . Absolutely. You felt like this could be the one . We knew it was the one. Yeah. Chris and amy were thrilled when heather said she wanted them to adopt her baby. They agreed to pay her Living Expenses for the last few months of the pregnancy and moved her into an apartment. You must have been excited. Very excited. Absolutely. Paying a birth mothers Living Expenses is legal in most states but doesnt guarantee the adoption will happen. The birth mother can change her mind at think time during her pregnancy. Still, amy and chris were confident heather wouldnt. We spent about three days total with her. Two months after they started supporting heather, amy and chris flew out to meet her face to face. We went to see movies together. I took her shopping for maternity clothes. Amy went with heather to the doctor for an ultrasound. How special was it for you to go to this ultrasound and actually see the baby. It was amazing. Having not had a pregnancy go that far to go to an ultrasound myself, it was really exciting for me. Heather handed amy copies of the ultrasound pictures, telling her she was a mother now. I immediately was like calling family saying, its a boy, heres his name. Two weeks later, everything changed. The manager of the apartment amy and chris were renting for heather called with terrible news. The apartment manager said heather has left her apartment. She told her neighbors to take whatever they wanted and she was gone. What a blow. It was awful. I have been through a miscarriage and i have been through that. There is no difference. They had sent heather nearly 9,000. They had come to think of the baby she was carrying as their son. But heather had vanished. The birth mom can change her mind at any time. No matter how much hundred you have given them. No matter how much time you spent with them, how much you have invested emotionally, it can be over like that. Yeah. Yeah. We always knew that. Amy didnt think heather had changed her mind. She suspected heather had duped her. She ended up being right. When you hear the name heather burgess, what goes through your mind . I need to get her in jail. Shes hurt many families. Sheilaeila davis says heather is a seeshl adoption scammer. She said heather took money from her parents, potential adoptive parents when she wasnt even pregnant. How was with it easy for her to take money . First off con artist. She makes you sympathize with her. She brings you into her world. Sheila reported heather to the michigan police. She was arrested and pleaded guilty to larceny but skipped town before sentencing. It was while heather was on the lam she moved into that apartment rented for her by chris are and amy. For me that was a scary thought. Did we just aid and abet a criminal . By the time she connected with chris and amy, heather was really pregnant. But it turns out though chris and awere the ones paying her bills, heather was shopping her baby to other adoption professionals, asking them for money, too. Did you feel stupid . Did you feel how could we have believed her and mott seen signs . I dont think i have felt stupid. That pay be because of the emotional hurt. I never felt stupid. I mean, shes just that good. Chris and amy contacted their local Sheriffs Department and investigators tracked heather down to a hotel in california. She was arrested and pleaded guilty to fraud. Why did you pursue charges . For me, i didnt want it to happen to anybody else. Heather was sentenced to spend a year in jail. Sheila davis didnt think that was the last she d hear about heather. There was a part of me even then knew she wouldnt quit. Was sheila right . We can decided to go undercover and find out. You wont believe what we caught on our hidden cameras. Are you even pregnant . You havent seen the last of heather. When we come back, shes at it again, using a different name but playing the same game. Shes got just one thing on her mind. We are talking about 7,000 . Total. How do we ensure you are going to choose us . Its a trust situation. Yeah. A little crushed vanilla bean. Twenty hundred vanilla specks. Breyers has fresh cream, sugar and milk. Breyers natural vanilla. 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So go ahead, get close revlon. Love is on. Chris and amy lemcools dreams of an adoption have been crushed by a scammer. She promised them her baby and disappeared after taking their money and their hearts. I think at that point i felt this is just never going to happen. We were thinking, i think we give up. Just wasnt meant to be. That all happened ten years ago. While there are no solid statistics on how many prospective parents fall prey to scams each year the problem is getting worse. Describe the business you got into 18 years ago versus the business youre in today. I have come across a scam once every three months. I just had three in one month. What are the tricks . I knew one girl that went around with an artificial stomach. She stole from a maternity store. Nanette is an adoption facilitator. She charges prospective parents a fee to connect them with pregnant women, a practice legal in california. But she says even she cant alwaysle tell if a birth mother is a scammer or not. I could have the girl right there with me. She could still be a tole talltall le total scam. She had no intention of placing that baby but thoughs the right things to say. Is the end goal for the birth mothers money . For some. Not for all. I have had girls say i dont want a dime. Theyre wonderful. When we met nanette, she was trying to track down a birth mother she had suspicions about. Her name was michelle. She had disappeared after promising her baby to a california couple. This couple gave her how much money . I want to say roughly around 2,000 exchanged is. Nanette texted michelle asking where she was. She says shes in las vegas. Michelle asked her to get the couple to send her more money, and fast. If they wont, i want to say that says help, me how they gonna treat my baby . We went online to see if we could find michelle. Adoption professionals sometimes share information about birth mothers on adoption websites. It didnt take long to find this message asking about her. It looked like michelle was phishing for money elsewhere. Shes a piece of work. Is shes unbelievable. We wanted to meet her in person. So a dateline producer called and said he was interested in adopting her baby. Michelle sent a photo of her pregnant belly. She texted again and again asking for makeup. Her boyfriend left this voicemail. We havent eaten all day. My girlfriend is eight months pregnant. Please do something, like, soon. We sent ale small amount of money for expenses and asked to meet in person. Turned out she wasnt in las vegas. She was in pennsylvania. There she is getting into the car we sent to pick her up. Take a closer look. Does she look familiar . She should. Turns out michelle is none other than heather burgess, the woman who scammed chris and amy all those years ago. How surprised were you to learn from us that heather, michelle or ohwhatever she s calling hes is still at it all these years later . Not surprised that shes still doing it. Thats how she makes her living. In the car riggeded edwith our oh hidden cameras, heather didnt say much to her boyfriend or to us. Was she nervous . What was she adjusting under her sweater . As the car made its way toward us we set up a camera in the restaurant. Two dateline producers were there posing as prospective adoptive parents sp. Hi, michelle. Hi. How are you . Take a seat. We already knew heather was lying about her name. We wonderered what else she would tell us. How are you feeling . Im feeling good. Its hard to sleep and stuff, move. How do you feel about giving up the baby . I cant let my feelings get involved with whats best for the baby. I cant. I cant feed the baby. I cant do anything for this baby. Why not give it a better life, you know . Are you working with anyone else . Talking to i any other couples . No, uhuh subpoena. We knew tafs a lie. She had just taken 2,000 from a couple in california. I want to make sure youre not talking to anybody else. Right. And that if you choose us you are going to keep your word. Right. I would never do that. I wouldnt put your hopes up or expectations high. I need somebody thats committed to this child. We asked for a list of oh Living Expenses they need help with like utilities food and housing. To the move into a little apartment it would be one month security and one months rent to move in. So 2400. 1200 a month. So 7,000. Total. Okay. How do we ensure you are going to choose us . Its a trust situation. Yeah. Its all about trust . Yeah. Pretty much. She may have thought she was fooling us. We had a few surprises for her, too. Because heather wasnt our only lunch guest that day. Coming up such a liar. Caught on camera by one of the couples she scammed. What will heatherer have to say to them . And tos us. Heather . It looks like your belly is gone. You took the pillow out . When dateline continues. Te plan and i was like why . and then sprint was like so you can spend money on stuff you want. 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New lash sensational full fan effect mascara maybe its maybelline whats better than nachos and beer . Nachos, brisket and beer. New brisket nachos bar snacks start under 5 only at applebees. The woman sitting across from us at this restaurant table said her fame wasname was michelle. She was 35 weeks pregnant and interested in letting us adopt her baby if we gave her 7,000needed for Living Expenses. Are you talking to any other couple . Uhuh. Problem was we knew michelle was heather burgess, a known adoption scammer, and she had already promised to baby to another family and had taken 2,000 from them. Is there anything we could know about your past we should be aware of . Want to make sure we know everything. No. I come from a healthy family. Have you ever been in trouble with the law . No. No. Neither of oh youyou . No. I got a ticket for speeding. Thats it . Just a speeding ticket . What heather wasnt telling us was she has an extensive criminal record that includes convictions for fraudulently taking money from adoptive parents like chris and amy lemcool. We invited them to watch from behind the scenes as heather tried to getten money from us. We cant keep the baby. We have no jobs. We cant raise the baby. I figured we might as well put the baby up for adoption. Such a liar. I sent you a picture of the ultrasound. Oh, my god. How does it feel seeing them do this again . Makes me sick. Its sickening that they are preying on people the way that they are. How has the pregnancy been for you . Its just been tiring because im older. Just tired all the time. And perhaps this was the biggest lie heather told us that day. Remember how she had been fidgeting with her sweatshirt in the car . We kept looking at her belly across the restaurant table. We werent sure she was even pregnant. It was time for the me to introduce myself. Theres andrea. I told her i was a present of the prospective parents who were really our producers. I couldnt handle it, you know, if it didnt the work out. I did look into it. I found something that you are actually working with another couple at the same time. Is that true . No. No, we are not working with anybody. Not working with anybody. You guys are the fist people we have met or talked to. There is not a couple in california you have met or taken money from. No. No. I was afraid you would say that. We have been looking into adoption scams. My name is andreaen canning. Im a correspondent for dateline nbc. Are you even pregnant . Yeah. How far along are you . Eight months. Can i feel your belly . Who are you . Im trying to find out the truth about what you are doing. I dont know if i should call you michelle or heather. Is your real name heather . You have done this before. Is that a pillow . It looks like a pillow. Do you have anything to say . Are you going to call im just going to heather and her boyfriend didnt stay to answer my questions. We offered them a lift back to the motel, but they walked off. How was iter for you two, reliving that through someone elses eyes and watching it again unfold. To me its frustrating to know that thats still happening. Then as our shoot wrapped up we spotted heather and her boyfriend a few blocks away and, guess what, she no longer looked eight months pregnant. That bulge with under her sweatshirt was gone. Heather . It looks like your belly is gone. You took your pillow out . A few minutes later, heather came back around the corner. She found chris and amy waiting. Of course you dont remember who we are. Heather, do you have anything to say to chris and amy . Im sorry. You should be sorry. Can i get a ride back . You dont realize youre hurting people. I dont think youre sorry. I dont think you care. She apologized. Do you know what she was sorry for . She was sorry she got with caught. Chris may have been right. A few days after the meeting the phone rang in nanettes office. The callers name was new but she said the voice sounded awfully familiar. She said it was heather claiming once again to be pregnant and looking for money. Is she not realizing you might recognize her voice. She doesnt remember who shes called, shes called so many. Is there anything adoptive parents can do to protect themselves . As our journey continues, i will be going undercover to find out. You just saw us con oh front an adoption scammer on our hidden cameras. Even if couples dont contact a birth mother directly, there are other ways things can fall apart in the adoption process. Next, well introduce you to a group of oh parentparents who say they had a different kind of problem than the couple you met. They didnt have a problem with the birth mother. It was with an agency. She kept saying there is another family interested. Are you going to match . Sounds like you are describing buying a house. Its a baby. When dateline continues. Grandma, this is the kids table. And im young at heart. And look how big youve gotten. But youre just trying to manipulate me so you can eat my kraft mac and cheese. See, youre wise beyond your years. Now get over there. Move it. I love you. Right. Gooey creamy delicious kraft macaroni cheese, you know you love it. Did ya know . Fresh step extreme lightweight litter isnt just light. Its also the best lightweight for eliminating odors. Amazing, right . For superior odor elimination try fresh step extreme. Lighweight. Lowes presents how to plan for the future. Happy valentines day. Happy birthday. Sorry i forgot our anniversary. Happy mothers day. Sele ct pint annuals, now 5 for 5 at lowes. Switchwireless this tax season. And get a free 4g lte smartphone after mailin rebate. And a free month of service after completing two months on select plans. That way you can turn your tax refund into a mefund and treat yourself to something nice like every flavor. And every topping. We just told you the story of a fake birth mother who cheated would be parents out of their savings and their dreams. Would you say you were the perfect prey . Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. These famil