Brennan said she and her husband thought the woman's e-mail itself was a scam or a phishing tool used to get information about them.

"It was really short," she said. "I think it said 'Urgent -- Please open about Jacob.'"

When concern about their son won out over concern about their privacy, the Brennans decided to very cautiously e-mail the woman back.

Turns out Jenni Brennan said that the woman's friend had fallen for an adoption scam from a St. Theresa Conception Parish which asks for $300 to start the adoption process about a year ago.

And when she saw the same ad pop up again she posed as an interested adopter to see what the scammer would send back.

What she got, Brennan said, was a picture of Jake Brennan, a chubby blond-haired little boy. Because the family's blog address popped up when users rolled their mouse over Jake's picture, the woman knew where to find the Brennans.

Jenni Brennan said her first response was to click on the ad itself --

— housed in the London Craigslist’s childcare section — and fire off an angry e-mail to the scanner demanding that Jake’s no longer be used without her permission.

Brennan said she never heard back and when she created a fake e-mail address the next day to contact the scammer as a potential adopter of her own son, they e-mailed her Jake’s picture from when he was about 7 months old.