Our babies took 11 months and 18 months, respectively, to arrive. By dealing with a local agency, we could drive over to sign papers or pick up the first picture of the baby. Even then, our agency warned us that the Indian contacts may have withheld important medical information. The total cost for both was much less than your news story mentioned. Having had a trustworthy agency to deal with where everyone working there was an adoptive parent, paying a bag of money to a virtual stranger sounds like sheer stupidity.
Con artists can always find a sucker, since adoption is such an emotionally-charged process.
People should deal only with licensed agencies. It's much safer. Send it . Send it . Use this version.