The mother, who is reportedly in debt, offered to sell her five-month-old baby boy on WhatsApp for 1.5 million rubles (£15,000).
However she did not realise that her online buyers were, in fact, undercover police officers.
They organised a swap and, at the meeting in her home country of Russia, arrested the woman and took her baby into care.
According to The Moscow Times, the unnamed mother previously had arranged for the baby to be adopted.
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However, when the would-be-parents refused to buy her apartment in Yakutsk, or pay off her bank loan of 196,000 rubles, she called off the agreement.
Her parental rights over the baby have been suspended.
She is set to appear in court on charges of the attempted sale of an underage person.