A recent blog post described an adoption scam involving a crook in Africa putting an ad on Craigslist offering a "free baby." The ad was discovered by our friend Jacqueline Lapine of KMIZ-TV in Columbia, who ran a story about it.

Around the time the story aired, a Columbia woman was just about to fall for a similar scam. After she saw Jacqueline's story, she knew she'd been fooled. She confronted the scammer in an e-mail. And the scammer came clean in this rant. Moral of the story, as always: don't do business with strangers on the Internet.

i am so sorry,i do not enjoy doing what i am doing but i am in the gloom ''prompt to do it ''please find a place in your heart to forgive me, please i am truly sorry for the hurts.it is because of my predicaments that iam doing all these, i got no choice even though i cannot justify myself and no worthy of any either,i feel so remorse and know i have really hurts you and your kids, please have mercy iam sorry, iam not a girl , i am a young boy and really sorry for what i have done,from day one i have been lying , the only truth i have ever told you was '' i cannot hurt you because i no what it meant to be hurt''but in the context that i told you so i was lying but in real life i have been hurts and just struggling to get up to no avail, i am a high school drop out and struggling to get back to school for four years now to no avail,i know it is not by this means that i can get back but i have tried so many times to but all failed me and i made up my mind to get back no matter what, i did not go to church today and last night i did not sleep, only thinking because truly i no how devastated your family is ant this point in time.please i do not want anything from you but just for you and your family to forgive me in the depth of your hearts. i know you're full of resentments for me and nothing less than that,because i have lied to you so much and everthing i said will seem to be fake, i know i will get through life someday, through my sufferings , i don't really enjoy this, i really feel bad insight , please forgive me, just try to forgive me, is all i ask of you , i have face a bitter peal of life and still face it but things at times that if i do this it can help me get back to what i love most , please forgive me and pray for God to show me his ways, iam really really sorry,if you put yourself in my shoe, you at least discover my predicaments and plight .i do not have a computer i only manage to have some few penny to pay at the cyber cafe to do all what i have been doing and hurting you.i am sorry