Saving You From Yourself
I
nominate Kinsolving, Troy Dunn, Pam Slaton, Search Quest, Worldwide Tracers,
OmniTrace and all other so-called "professional searchers" who have
for years, unchallenged and unregulated, engaged in the worst kind of vulture
capitalism, price-gouging, exploitation, and manipulation, and who have made
literally millions of dollars off of the pain and heartache of adopted persons
and those who are searching for them, people who, for too long already, have
been unfairly disenfranchised and discriminated against by the adoption
industry and state laws sealing birth records. To do so unabashedly, all the
while mouthing platitudes of support and lip service to adoptee rights to OBCs
- their identity, family history, heritage and the identity of those to whom
they are blood related - and engaging in offensive self-aggrandizing and
self-promoting television programs without informing their victims that there
are many search and support groups with no or minimal fees and hundreds of
search angels all over the country who charge nothing and have just as great,
or better, success rates, is deserving of a group Demons of Adoption Award. –
Nomination for Sixth Annual Demons in Adoption Award, PoundPupLegacy.org
One of the great things about
being an independent, free agent (in every sense of the word) Search Angel is
the ability to remove myself from associating with the unsavory underworld of
adoption. I refuse to, knowingly, have anything
to do with any organization or individual who profits from adoption by
trafficking babies and children, such as adoption agencies and lawyers, or paid
search companies who exploit adoptees and those who love them. If you’re here reading my blog, it’s
obviously too late to save you from being victimized by the former, but here’s
hoping I can save many thousands of you from losing your hard-earned money to
the latter.
There
are two kinds of paid searchers: The pay-up-front,
no guaranty, such as OmniTrace, WorldWide Tracers, and Search Quest America
(which I understand are all tied together financially or have extensive
cooperation agreements) and the no-find/no fee firms such as Kinsolving and Pamela
Slaton. Frankly, I don’t have as much of
a problem with these two companies, which charge fees upwards of $2,500 to $4,000,
because at least they only get their money if they make a successful conclusion
to the search. My only difficulty with
them is that they are not fully honest with searchers and inform them of all of
their options.
On the other hand, I do not
have one merciful or tolerating word for the pay-up-front, no guaranty
companies. I wish people who are
considering signing contracts with these firms would do a little research. Just Googling the company name in quotation
marks along with the word “complaint” will bring an eye-opening education, and
one will quickly learn that the ethics of these businesses are appalling and that
they’re even in cahoots with each other.
For example, I have been credibly informed that, although Troy Dunn
claims he is not in the search business any longer, everyone who puts their
contact information on his site is immediately referred to Search Quest
America, which is run by Susan Friel Williams, a former Dunn employee. There are also compelling allegations that
Dunn receives a kickback for every victim SQA signs up, which he has apparently
denied.
Here’s how these companies
operate: First, they get referrals by harvesting contact information from on-line
adoption registries that have public contact information. They have also spent years scouring the
Internet, harvesting sites and have formed their own new registries to entice
victims. These searchers will then be
contacted by sales marketers who will make grandiose promises and pressure them
into signing contracts for minimum fees of $1,500, which are good for only six
months and for which there is no promise or guaranty of a completed “result.” These marketing agents adhere to strict
company guidelines to persuade the victims to sign. For example, they are not allowed to inform
searchers of all their alternatives (i.e., that they can get their original
birth certificate in certain states, that they should sign up with ISRR –
International Soundex Reunion Registry – the largest free on-line registry in
the world) or tell them that there is free, competent, very successful help
available in search and support groups and through independent search angels. We have even heard of instances where they
have falsely told the victims that they "have no option" but to hire
them. Even if they know a case is fairly
easily solved (something anyone reasonably savvy on the computer can do by
themselves in a few minutes), the marketing agents will push the victim to sign
up and pay the full fee, thus boosting the company’s "success
stories" with easy searches. Even
worse, the sales reps know there are cases that cannot possibly be solved
(black/grey market adoptions, or private adoptions where there is no birth name
and no non-identifying information), yet sign them up anyway just to get the
$1,500 non-refundable fee.
Whenever a consumer who is vulnerable,
in confusion and distress,
is not fully and honestly informed of
all their options,
it is exploitation!
The amount of money these
companies have been ripping off people is staggering. Just an example, an employee of Search Quest
America recently slipped up in an on-line forum and declared that the company
had “302,000” clients. Accounting for an
errant ‘2’ in there (the message was obviously typed in angry haste), I’ll give
them the benefit of the doubt and say they have 30,000 clients. In a recent press release, Williams wrote, Since the company was founded in 2008, over two thousand families have
been reunited! For the sake of expediency, I am
willing to round that up to 3,000.
Subtracting 3,000 from 30,000, then, would leave us a figure of 27,000
clients whose cases have apparently not yet been resolved. Then is it reasonable to assume that, at
$1,500 each, SQA has raked in $45,000,000 to solve 3,000 cases? (!!) I
wonder if the IRS is aware of this? Even
just considering the solved cases, it comes out to $4,500,000. Pamela Slaton on her website claims, I
have solved over 3000 cases to date. Her fees range from
$2,000-$2,500. Again, using the minimum
fee, that comes to $6,000,000.
I
have been saying for years, if we had put just half of the money and effort
that we have been giving to these unsavory rip-off artists over the years into
adoptee rights and efforts in state legislatures to unseal original birth
certificates, we would have been over and done 20 years ago!
UPDATE - 18 Jun 2013
UPDATE - 18 Jun 2013
Since
publishing this post "Saving You From Yourself" I have been hearing more
stories of how paid search companies have been scamming and ripping off
victims. Some have been successful in getting their money back, but
that doesn't make up for the emotional
pain and suffering they have had to endure. And it leaves these
vultures free to prey upon other victims with impunity. I hope you will
all take just a few moments to file a formal fraud complaint with the
Attorney General's Office. We have got to put a stop to this and make
the public more aware.