Psychics, mediums, fortune tellers and spell casters have been around for centuries. From the start, their field has been rife with fraud. There is little protection for victims, many of whom are too embarrassed to come forward or simply feel too threatened to tell. A quick Google search will show the hundreds of thousands of cases where victims have been scammed with scammers gaining millions of dollars through their scams.One of the biggest hurdles for the victim is other people’s own bias about the legitimacy of such practices so victims are too embarrassed to come forward. Like any kind of scam, the victim feels great shame that they fell for it but that shouldn’t let that stop them from seeking the help they need.
But the question comes up – are there real psychics and spell casters? It depends on an individual’s belief system. There are legitimate psychics and spell casters, who although may not be accurate or get the client the exact results they want, they at least provide a reading or do the work they were hired to do. But believing or not, it doesn’t matter what someone’s belief system is, no one has the right to scam anyone out of their money, valuables, and sometimes their identity.
How the scam works
Fraudulent spell casters and psychics will either set up physical shop or more likely develop an online presence. They sell their services usually via the web under terms like psychics, spells and spiritual services. Almost all stay within the law stating they must have ‘For entertainment purposes only’ on their websites and posted in their shops.
What they offer is as varied as the individuals offering the service. A person in a desperate situation will call and request a spell or spiritual cleanse, money is exchanged and often if it’s fraudulent the victim can never reach the person again. Or the spell caster comes back to the victim time after time requesting more funds, valuables to be sent or gift cards. If the victim does not comply they are threatened sometimes even with death threats.
A legitimate psychic will simply give the reading to the best of their ability. A scammer will tell the victim they are cursed, have negative energy around them, ask them to come back for a more in-depth look. They will do cold readings, trying to pull information out of the victim and play on that information to psychologically trick the victim that they are real.
Spotting Signs of Fraud
Shady Methods of Payment: Most legitimate psychics and spell casters will accept PayPal or another credit card process service. One of the biggest signs that a spell caster or psychic is a fraud is requesting that a potential victim wire money by Western Union often to a random address or another country with a “waive signature” designated. Some will use Money Gram or other means of sending money that is usually more difficult to trace than a credit card.
Business Information: People should do an internet search about the business, the casters name and other identifying information to see what comes back. Often scam reports from Ripoff Report and similar sites will come up quickly. Many of the psychics and spell casters who were found to be operating a legitimate business didn’t have the best websites and some weren’t even found on the web at all but rather through online forums and word-of-mouth referrals. A number of the fraudulent sites can be traced back to Nigeria and other places in Africa, but many were located right here in the United States.
Tales of Curses/ Money for Supplies: Those committing fraud were usually the spell casters and psychics who claimed a curse had been put on the victim and their services were the only way to remove it, otherwise the victim would never have happiness. Others pressured the victims and told them they only had limited availability and their case was dire and in need of immediate intervention. There were high pressure sales strategies at work and many victims fell for it. They were often in desperate situations and saw no other way out. Psychics and spell casters play on the fears of the victim to get them to purchase the service. Some will go to great lengths to communicate with the victim right up until time the payment is made, then communication either ceases or they come back time after time and tell the victim more money is needed for more spells or valuables sent and made as offerings. Others tell the victims the money is to purchase supplies and the money will be returned. A common trick is for the victim to be asked to spend large sums of money on gift cards to various stores and send these to the caster with the idea they will be returned. They never are.
Asking for More and More: One of the most common tricks in these scams is to go back to the victim for more money because more work is needed. A common line from them is – “Once I looked into this further, I saw more issues, more negative energy that needs to be cleared and I need more money.” It’s always another issue or another problem and more work needs to be done. Or doing a fraudulent psychic reading, they ask for you to spend more time, come back another day, let’s do a more in-depth reading. The scammer makes the victim feel like it’s a dire situation and something will go wrong if they don’t more spell work. Another common statement is – “If we don’t do more all the initial work we did will backfire or be ineffective.” Bottom line, it’s all just a scam.
Asking for Personal Information: No one needs your social security number or bank or credit card number to do spell work no matter what anyone says.
Promise Immediate Results: Almost all scam sites will tell a victim to expect almost overnight results: Return a lover in twenty-four hours and/or their problems will disappear overnight. This is a huge sign of a scam.