Psychic and Fortune
Teller Scams
I See Bad Things Happening
A fortune teller in New York utilized a common industry scheme
to defraud her "client" out of $200,000 in inheritance
money by claiming that the money, given to the victim from a relative,
was evil and had to be cleansed. She conned the victim into believing
that the source of her personal and professional unhappiness was
the "evil" in the inheritance money.
She convinced her client that she could cleanse the money of evil
spirits at a cemetery and, thereafter, would return the money so
the victim's life would get back on the right path. This late night
ritual usually involves a man's white handkerchief and an egg which
absorbs the evil spirits.
The victim first met the con outside a restaurant where she was
sitting at a table offering tarot card readings for $15. The victim
believed the initial reading to be accurate with regard to her
life, her children, her husband and her father, and thereafter
agreed to regular meetings.
During the meetings, she was befriended and revealed more about
her life, including that she had received a substantial inheritance.
She was told she needed to "purify" herself so that she
could resolve issues concerning her work, love life, and her children.
Often this takes the ritualistic form of burning "special" candles
which supposedly cost around $100 each.
Over about eight weeks she was directed to make cash withdrawals
to purchase items, such as gift certificates and jewelry, that
the con would use for all sorts of "ceremonies." Later,
she directed the victim to provide monies to her in the form of
cash so that she could "clean" the money and "rid
it of evil."
After receiving over $160,000 in cash and other personal property
and items valued at over $40,000, the fortune teller fell victim
to the money's evil and vanished.
Overcome By All The Evil Received
Texas 10/01 - Gina Evans, 35, pleaded guilty to federal wire
fraud and money laundering charges for running a psychic hot line
scam and was ordered to pay more than $330,000 in restitution to
victims nationwide. She could have faced up to 15 years in prison
but was given 2 1/2 years.
Authorities said Evans, who went by at least seven aliases, had
offered psychic and spiritual advice in advertisements in several
national publications, including the National Enquirer, New Woman
and Cosmopolitan magazines.
She would charge callers a one-time fee of several hundred dollars,
then later convince them to send additional money or property so
she could cleanse it of the "evil" in the person's life.
She promised to return the items once they were purified, but never
did.
The prosecuting attorney stated there were 13 victims identified
who agreed to come forward, but questioned how many more were out
there. "There was one lady we contacted, but she didn't want
to come forward because she said we didn't understand how curses
worked. She lost $6,500."
One victim who felt the sentence was too short said. "What
she did to me scarred me spiritually and emotionally. She brought
demons and devils into my life and said they would kill me and
my son. The money is one thing, but when it comes to putting a
curse on my son, threatening him, there is no sentence that could
cover that."
Another woman, who said she gave Evans $76,000 when she was going
through a deep emotional crisis stated. "She took advantage
of me when I was really having problems and feeling suicidal."
That Love Bug is Possessed
03/20/02 - Two self-described psychics, Sonia Merino, 50 and her
daughter-in-law, Nasta Merino, 23 were arrested and charged with
five counts each of mail fraud for allegedly conning clients into
paying thousands of dollars in fees to free them from bad karma.
The pair advertised in a South Bay newspaper mailer, offering
psychic readings for as little as $10 but would then tell clients
that additional sessions, ranging up to $20,000, were needed to
drive away a curse or some negative spiritual force.
One client told investigators that he gave Sonia Merino more than
$518,000 in checks, a 1999 Volkswagen Beetle, a CD player and a
personal computer over a three-year period after first going to
her for a tarot card reading in 1996 after a failed romance.
He says Sonia told him he needed a series of costlier sessions
including a request for $750,000 to pay a group of psychics to
conduct all-night meditations on his behalf. One victim was quoted
in the affidavit as saying that Sonia Merino threatened to put
a curse on her when she refused to pay several thousand dollars
for a series of sessions. Another told of being badgered with phone
calls every few hours throughout the night.
Sonia Merino also sold clients what she described as "holy
water" from the Vatican but analysis showed it was Manhattan
Beach tap water, authorities said. Nasta Merino was accused of
selling at least one person "holy water" from Ste.-Anne-de-Beaupre,
a Catholic shrine near Quebec City, Canada, which is frequented
by invalids seeking miracle cures. It, too, came from a local tap.
In addition to mail fraud, Sonia and her husband Steve, 44, were
charged with tax fraud for allegedly underreporting $750,000 in
income from 1995 through 1999.
Please include www.jasmine-woods.com as a psychic scam artist.
She likes to run up people's credit cards for them after telling
them she needs to get "supplies" such as supposedly "very" expensive
candles to bring "good luck" to a person or otherwise
do her work of changing your karma, saying there's something in
the Chakras that needs correcting.
Sometimes she'd say she'd send something, but then never would
because she decided it would be used wrong. She likes "gold" and
diamonds as well.
She's a good bullshitter but she's also a darn thief! I
managed to get about $6,000 back from her after I told her I would
contact the authorities but she still managed to keep about $7,000.
I've accepted my losses and continue to kick myself in the butt
for being so stupid to fall for her b.s. to begin with. She gets
people when they are most vulnerable such as when they are going
through a divorce or bad times in their life.
People like her are very persuasive. I don't know how their evil
tricks work, but they do. I imagine they came from hell and will
eventually go back there.
Emily 09/22/02
Ham and Eggs
It was late winter of last year when she approached me. I was
walking down the street and saw her from a distance handing out
flyers. As I was walking down towards her, I noticed she was looking
down on the street not looking at anyone. As I was walking towards
her direction she handed me a flyer.
The instant I took it she looked straight at my face and said
something, and though I can't remember her exact words, it was
something along the lines of "my soul mate is out there but
I know him and currently quarreling with him and he doesn't know
that I am his soul mate yet; that there this darkest surrounding
me and standing in the way of my happiness; that I’m in trouble;
need to be read and that she would read me for free."
I was so enthralled by what she had said I went with her to her
home right up the block and there she read my palm. She said that
someone years before had apparently placed a darkness upon me (yes,
a supposed “curse”but in her own elaborate wording).
I was astonished to hear of the tough times she knew I had been
going through (psychic scammers use questioning methods in order
to draw out information out of a person, so they can appear as
though they are psychic), that the cause of this was this curse
placed upon me, how it affected my past, present and how it will
affect my future even worse.
That if I wanted to be happy she had the gift and power to remove
this curse placed on me and be able to do that for a “one
time fee”of only $300. So I came back with the money and
she told me that she would do some meditation that night at her
(supposed) church on focusing on how to help me.
She told me to come back the following day and to bring back a
red rose and an envelope. So I came in the following day and she
told me from her meditation last night, she saw the soul of a person
who placed this darkness upon me.
That this person went to someone to have this done and they used
things that were not natural or holy to commit this act. She told
me make three wishes and pull the petals from the rose, drop them
in the envelope and write my name and birth date on it.
She said she would keep the rose and meditate on it that evening
and find what she could find out and let me know the following
day.
The following day, she said that based upon her mediation she
found out that this person hadn’t done this to me once but
nine times and that she needed to do further mediation that weekend
to find out what needed to be done.
She said that I needed to bring the following week nine bills
of $100, an uncooked egg, white cotton underwear, nine leaves (yes,
- “the egg trick”) and the envelope. She gave me incense
and told me to light and place all those items under my bed that
weekend.
I said I would be able to gather the items except that the money
would be a problem since I didn’t have that kind of money
on me. She said to get whatever largest quantity I could find,
so I managed to get $50 bills. I placed all the items under my
bed and lit the incense that weekend and contacted her right after
as she instructed me to.
The following Monday I came in, and though I can’t remember
all the step by step details of what she did, I do recall she blessed
me with some holy water (probably tap water), took the money and
folded it into a shape like a star, had me recite some gibberish
prayer that she was recanting, put the money on my forehead and
chest and then put the money in the envelope for me to keep.
Then she did the “egg trick”having my eyes closed
and having me reciting again another gibberish prayer (a way to
keep you distracted so they can slip whatever disgusting gross
thing onto the egg they just crack).
When I opened my eyes I found a “tiny wormy snake in the
egg”cracked and placed on top of the underwear I was told
to bring. Afterwards, she told me based upon her meditation that
weekend and only one snake being found in the egg there was still
more evil that had not been removed (“that only one evil
was removed but there was 2 more evils that had not been removed”)- hence
there was more work needed to be done.
At home, she told me to light a white candle halfway with my initials
engraved, leave a half filled water jar under my bed and breathe
into it 9 times a day, tie nine red ribbons around my fingers and
toes and to bring $2,700 the next day (her explanation: $300 -
three representing the trinity of the largest denomination X 9 – the
many times the curse had been placed upon me) for her to remove
the evil from me and transfer it to this money.
She said that afterwards I had the choice to have it destroyed
before my eyes and buried in the ground where no human being would
walk, or lock it in a specially ordered box for several months
to be placed on an alter of her church to be cleansed and be given
back to me several months later.
I told her it was going to be difficult since I didn’t have
that kind of money on me.
She yelled at me saying if I really wanted to be happy I needed
to rid myself of this, that I should try to get as much as I could,
and to contact her through the week on the progress of the money.
So I contacted her mid-week saying I could only get $900. She told
me to light the rest of the candle and contact her on Sunday to
set up a day. I contacted her on Sunday and then throughout the
week until she said she was available to do it the following week.
So I came to her home the following week and had her destroy the
all money including the money in the white envelope by having her
rip the money before my eyes, or at least under my throat, while
she had me recite another prayer (another method they use - she
had ripped some but not all of the bills as she crumpled them and
left them to fall to the ground, the impression and sound that
they were all being ripped when in fact they weren’t). Then
she had me write up and sign a contract stating that I was loaning
her the money.
She then told me to come back the following day with the leftover
candle wax so she could mediate with it and to pick up a package
of crystals, incense and holy water that she had ordered for me
to use that weekend.
When I came in the next day, she did some sort of ritual cleansing
on me and the only thing she gave me consisted of incense and some
water mixed with incense to bath in (which I never used and threw
away) and that the crystal she specially ordered would arrive in
a few weeks and to contact her again that weekend.
But then that weekend, realizing what I had done, I came to my
senses and called her requesting she give my money back and she
said she would. Later that weekend she called me saying she had
only half of the money and to pick it up on Monday and that she
would give me the rest later on.
That Monday, I went to her home and picked up the money. She said
to check later on this week or next to see if “the church”could
give her the rest of the money. So for three weeks, I called and
called. Mostly phone tagging her, with her each time giving me
excuses that the church wasn’t able to give her any money
and she very busy and to call again later, in the hope that I would
eventually give up in the end.
Realizing I wouldn’t give up, she finally relented saying
she had the money for me to pick up. I did so and never spoke to
her since.
As you read this you might have thought that common or instinctive
sense would have told me to stop my involvement when things started
to get shady.
Believe me, I contested and was suspicious every time money was
asked. But like most people who tell of their account of being
a victim of a psychic scam these psychic scammers are very skilled
in convincing you that they have the gift and power to help you,
and the ability to extract information from you.
Their overall objective is to emotionally control and psychologically
take advantage of you by tapping into your vulnerability and fears – which
is frightening!!
They try to win your trust and loyalty to get you to confide in
them, so they can use that information (whether emotional or financial)
against you. They profess to know the cause of your problems and
that they have the power to help you, and will do whatever needs
to be done (in most cases asking for money) to benefit you in the
end.
They make sure that they put their hooks into you to convince
you to still want to be involved in their scheme by enticing you
to come back for more.
In my case, this fraudster had me call her constantly and every
weekend to let her know how I was doing. She would occasionally
provide me with bits of information regarding the person who “supposedly”cursed
me and promised to later find out exactly who it was (which she
never did!!). She was very convincing, wanting me to believe, and
have faith in what she was saying and the power of what she could
do.
She seemed empathetic in listening to my concerns and problems.
Stating that there was no pressure to this if I didn’t want
to do it, allowing me to think it over and that even if afterwards,
if I had doubts about it, she would give me the money right back.
From the basis of that I assumed she was the genuine thing.
Her name is supposedly "Laura or Arroyo" and she resides
at her place of business on West 24th Street in NYC.
She is in her 30’s and says she is of Greek descent with
Mediterranean or Hispanic features, but she capable of changing
her appearance. Her blond hair apparently seems to have been bleached
at the time that I had been approached by her.
I later found out she occasionally displays a fold- out advertisement
sign of her supposed services or hands out flyers at the end of
the corner walk where she resides.
Except for the $300 fee she charged and refused to give back,
I was able to get all of my $1,600 back. An ordeal, beginning to
end, of about a month.
Flat Iron District Victim 03/29/03
04/03 North Jersey - Karen R. Mitchell, 32, of Allendale has to
answer charges of theft by deception for claiming to be a psychic
and bilking a client out of nearly $24,000 over two years.
The client told police the scam began on her first visit when
Mitchell said she needed more time for a séance and asked
her to get more money from an automated teller machine.
At one point she and the soothsayer traveled to New York City
to buy a $12,000 Tourneau watch so they could "turn back time." The
watch was among jewelry and clothing that police say persuaded
the woman to buy.
In other instances, the client was persuaded to buy clothing to
dress up figures to look like people from her past.
Woman jailed in scam as psychic - VICTIM, 19, WAS PRESSED
TO PAY TOTAL OF $15,000
By Jessie Seyfer - Mercury News bayarea.com 12/06/03
A self-proclaimed psychic based in Half Moon Bay was sentenced
to two years in state prison Friday for demanding that a 19-year-old
woman pay her $15,000 to ward off predictions that the woman's
family members would die.
Janet Adams, 41, operated as a palm reader and psychic at a booth
at the annual Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival and got to know the
victim through a friend, said San Mateo County Deputy District
Attorney Kathryn Alberti.
"This 19-year-old was very innocent, very vulnerable," Alberti
said.
Over several months, Adams would make predictions that the woman's
family members were about to die, and would tell her that she needed
to pay or the predictions would come true, Alberti said. The victim
had access to a parent's bank account, and also charged payments
on her credit cards, Alberti said.
The requests for money came almost weekly until the woman became
suspicious and reported Adams to police last fall, when she was
arrested in San Mateo.
Adams was convicted last year of running the same scam on a San
Mateo piano store owner. In that case, she operated under the name
Kimberly Johnson, and managed to convince the owner to give her
a total of $100,000, Alberti said.
Women Accused of Satanic Ritual Fortune
Teller Scam
08/06 - MILFORD, Conn. -- (AP) Police have arrested two Stratford
women accusing them of scamming a woman out of $145,000 through
some bizarre rituals including drinking rooster blood.
Maria dos Santos, 52, and her daughter, Shirley Iannucci, 30,
were arrested by police Tuesday on charges of first-degree larceny
and conspiracy.
Police said the two women had become friendly with the alleged
victim who was going through a divorce last year.
According to court documents, the alleged victim feared for her
life after dos Santos told her that "God was going to kill
her." The city woman called police in January, the day after
dos Santos performed a satanic ritual in her West River Street
home that included drinking blood from a dead rooster, according
to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Dos Santos persuaded the victim to let her handle all of her financial
affairs while the divorce was pending, according to court documents.
Both women were released after posting bond.
Psychic arrested in scam - bilks woman of $30,000,
cops say
11/06 - (Illinois) A LaPlace woman claiming to be a psychic,
who police say bilked a woman distraught over a relative's
bad health out of $30,000 in 2003 and 2004, has been arrested,
ending a nearly 18-month search.
Sonya G. Marks, 24, who goes by Sister Savannah and Madam
Savannah, was booked with theft Thursday afternoon.
Marks told the Chicago woman in December 2003 that it would
take $10,000 to remove the "evil" in her that was
causing the sickness to her family member, said James Gallagher,
Kenner Police Department spokesman. He said the sick family
member originally went to Marks seeking help.
Gallagher wouldn't release details about the family, but
a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest report said Marks
told the woman that her brother had a curse on him that would
cause his leg to be amputated unless the sister gave Marks
money.
In January 2004, Marks again met with the woman and told
her an additional $20,000 was needed to fight the evil.
After she received the money, Savannah told the woman that
things would get better, Gallagher said. Marks mailed her
a lucky pouch and angel pin to wear, a white candle to light
every day and holy water to bath in on Sundays, Gallagher
said.
But the woman's family member was hospitalized in February
2004, and she asked for her money back.
Marks refused, saying that too much work had been done.
The Chicago woman filed a police report with the Kenner
Police Department in October 2004 and a warrant was issued
for Marks' arrest in May 2005.
Gallagher said Marks, 1050 East Airline Drive, LaPlace,
was able to elude police because of Hurricane Katrina and
because she kept moving her storefront to different Kenner
locations. He said her relatives and friends weren't cooperative
in helping police find her.
Marks was released from jail Friday on a personal surety
bond.
No one answered the door Friday afternoon at her new office
building in the 1900 block of Williams Boulevard. A woman
who answered the phone number given on a Madam Savannah sign
said a reporter had the wrong number.
The sign advertised Savannah as "a palm and card reader,
healer and advisor."
By Mary Swerczek Sparacello, The Times-Picayune
Gypsy Psychic Scammers are a Curse on Victims
07/06 - COVINGTON, La. (AP) - A palm reader and self-proclaimed
psychic has been put on probation for a year for trying to
scam a Slidell business owner out of five-thousand dollars
in July 2004.
Lecia Urich, of Kenner, who pleaded guilty to attempted theft of more
than 500 dollars, had told the woman that a ritual during which money
was buried would help lift a deadly curse.
Urich, who goes by the name "Sister Jackson," also
was fined 250 dollars by State District Judge Reginal Badeau.
Authorities say the Slidell woman was not the only victim.
Kenner police said Urich told four customers that their
enemies had put curses on them and offered to dispel the
hexes for a total of seven-thousand-100 dollars, which she
said she would bury in a church or cemetery.
Fortune teller accused in $220,000 scam in Seattle arrested
in Canada
10/07 - A 77-year-old fortune teller on the run for eight
years after she was accused of scamming a despondent Seattle
woman out of $220,000 was arrested in Calgary this week.
Calgary officials said Sophie Evon will be extradited to
Seattle within a week to face charges that she stole the
money in 1999 from a 26-year-old woman sad from a breakup
with her boyfriend.
At the time, prosecutors said Evon and her daughter-in-law
ran a psychic parlor in North Seattle when they offered to
cleanse some evil spirits for the woman. They prayed, lit
candles, burned leaves and persuaded the woman to buy $4,500
in gold coins to repel bad spirits.
They manipulated the victim into tapping her elderly parents'
life savings, then vanished with the money, prosecutors said.
In 2003, Evon eluded Toronto police, when they were about
to nab her at a psychic parlor as she was running out the
back, according to Canadian news reports.
Evon's daughter-in-law, Sylvia Lee, was sentenced to 18
months in 2001, after police arrested her in Toronto. They
found her through her common-law husband's Rolls Royce.
SeattlePI.com - Vanessa Ho
Follow-up story by Tracy Johnson.
Fortuneteller gets 1 1/2 years in jail after she bilked
brokenhearted woman out of $220,000
04/08 - The 26-year-old woman was so heartbroken over a
breakup with her boyfriend that she trusted two Seattle fortunetellers
to help her win him back.
Sophie Evon and her daughter-in-law, both self-proclaimed
Gypsies, lit candles, burned leaves and convinced the woman
that they could break the spell that had supposedly been
cast on her ex.
They just needed to borrow her savings so that they could
pray over it.
"Through the whole thing, I always had doubts," the
woman told a King County judge on Friday. "I thought
(Evon) cared about me. ... She was good at sensing my doubts
and re-establishing my trust throughout the whole process."
Evon, 79, was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison Friday
for swindling the woman out of almost $220,000 -- much of
it taken from her elderly parents' retirement savings.
The elaborate scam took place in 1999, but Evon ran away
with the cash and lived on the run.
The victim, who asked not to be identified, remains overwhelmed
with guilt and hasn't been able to tell her parents what
happened. She said they live in China and don't know the
money is gone.
Through tears, she told Superior Court Judge Nicole MacInnes
that she is still afraid to trust people and fearful that
everyone will think "what a stupid person I was at that
time."
Evon declined to say anything in court. Led into the courtroom
by two guards, the winded woman coughed incessantly as her
attorney, Edward Becker, said she felt bad about what she
had done.
Becker said Evon, who pleaded guilty last month to three
first-degree theft charges, had put $5,000 toward paying
the woman back and was making efforts toward giving her an
additional $15,000.
But Deputy Prosecutor Scott Peterson said the crime was "a
very orchestrated psychological ploy that they used ... to
gain her trust." He said the women even worked out a "good
cop-bad cop" routine to break down her resistance.
MacInnes said Evon had taken no responsibility as she imposed
the 1 1/2-year sentence prosecutors recommended instead of
the standard three- to 9-month jail term Evon faced.
Evon, who has apparently never had any formal education,
was caught in Canada a few years after disappearing with
the money.
She faked stroke symptoms in an unsuccessful effort to be
found mentally unfit and then escaped again, according to
court documents.
She was arrested again in October in Calgary, Alberta.
Her daughter-in-law and partner in crime, Sylvia Lee, received
an 18-month sentence in 2001.
WARNING OVER 'PSYCHIC HEALER' SCAM
UK - 01/08 -Trading Standards officers have warned people
to watch out for an "insidious" scam which preys
on people's religious beliefs.
Lincoln residents are being bombarded with leaflets, supposedly
sent by a "world famous psychic healer" called
Karina Natalia.
Ms Natalia claims that she has chosen the recipient of the
letter to receive her prayers of "wealth, luck and happiness" when
she makes a pilgrimage to Lourdes in France.
She claims those prayers will be answered to the tune of £75,000
if the letter recipient is lucky.
The letter does not ask for money, but it does ask people
to fill in the questionnaire on the back.
The personal details requested include the recipient's full
name, date of birth and place of birth.
This is nearly enough information with which to open a bank
account.
And the sender also asks for information on pets', partners'
and spouses' names - the information a lot of people use
as bank and e-mail account passwords.
The owner of Arrow Cycles in Newark Road, North Hykeham,
Carole Thompson, received one of the letters.
"I thought this was pretty disgusting in the way it
focuses on religious belief and people's feelings for their
loved ones and pets," she said.
Lincolnshire trading standards divisional manager Mark Keal
said: "It is pretty insidious the way they target people
like this.
"We get a lot of these scams, some are very aggressive
and almost scare people into offering up information, others
are a little more persuasive and subtle like this one."
ThisIsLincolnshire.com
Fortune Teller Psychic Scammers
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