by Ann Marie Cunningham

About the author: Ann Marie Cunningham is a writer and television producer.

Sitting in her cozy Long Island, New York, kitchen, Millie Collica, thirty- three, keeps a watchful eye on her adopted two-year-old daughter, Arianna. “Do you have young nieces and nephews"” Millie asks. “Do you have photographs of them? If you do, you can open an adoption agency. That’s all it takes.”

Millie and her husband, Michael, know just how easy it is for couples desperate to become parents to be cheated by a dishonest adoption agency. In 1995, before adopting Arianna, the Collicas lost almost $20,000 to Today’s Adoption Agency, based in Hawley, Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, the Collicas are not alone. According to the U.S. Immigration...