2024 In Why You Should Never, Never, Ever Give A 'Psychic' Any Of Your Money
It's a scam. It's always a scam.
People’s beliefs about the supernatural are their own business — I happen to not believe in anything like that, but “whatever gets you through the day,” you know? Where I do have a problem is when it leads to vulnerable people being taken advantage of — the same problem I’d have with any other kind of scam.
There’s a world of difference between getting a $15 tarot reading for funsies at an event by someone you know doesn’t actually have any magic powers and being taken for a ride by someone who convinces you your entire family is going to die if you don’t give them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So here is my annual list of the scammiest psychics of the year 2024, with the hope that it keeps people from falling for any of this bullshit in 2025.
Patrice Runner
Patrice Runner, perhaps one of the most prolific con artists in modern history, was sentenced this year to 10 years in prison for mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. From 1994 to 2014, the 57-year-old conman swindled over $175 million from “elderly and vulnerable” people in the United States with his mail-order psychic schemes.
Runner and his associates would send out seemingly personalized letters to his marks from “famed French psychic Maria Duval” (a psychic scammer herself who falsely claimed to have used her powers to rescue Brigitte Bardot’s dog) offering an “astral-clairvoyant forecast” for a fee. Anyone who responded was swiftly bombarded with even more letters offering other services and asking for more money.
Via the Department of Justice:
Although the scheme’s letters frequently stated that a psychic had seen a personalized vision regarding the recipient of the letter, in fact, the scheme sent nearly identical form letters to tens of thousands of victims each week. Runner and his co-conspirators obtained the names of elderly and vulnerable victims by renting and trading mailing lists with other mail fraud schemes. In reality, the so-called “psychics” identified in the letters sent by the scheme had no role in sending the letters, did not receive responses from the victims, and did not send the additional letters after victims paid money. Some victims made dozens of payments in response to the fraudulent letters, losing thousands of dollars.
You have to be a pretty evil person already to prey on people’s belief in magic, but to specifically target the elderly, most of whom are living on fixed incomes, seems especially cruel.
Runner, of course, maintains that he did nothing wrong. “Maybe it’s not moral, maybe it’s bullshit,” he once said. “But it doesn’t mean it’s fraud.”
To be fair, if you are of the opinion (as I am) that no one has magic powers, it’s not really all that much different from what any “psychic” does.
Catalina
One vulnerable California person managed to avoid being scammed by one psychic, who had instructed her to buy gold coins, only to end up getting scammed by another, to whom she ended up paying $77,000 for literally nothing, plus a crystal.
Via the Better Business Bureau Scamtracker:
I was going through a super rough patch in life… I was scammed by an online psychic who had told me to purchase a ton of gold coins (ugh, it’s quite comedic and laughable when I think back now…) and had googled a psychic nearby and came across Catalina (or Kathy Miller). I had called because I didn’t know what to do with the coins after I had just broken off any contact with the previous psychic and needing advice (lol, I should’ve just held onto the coins and they’ve appreciated a lot!)… and called Kathy in a vulnerable moment. I was unsure if I wanted to go through with any psychic services - but I was just scared.. and Kathy had called me the next day asking if I still wanted a reading. I felt obligated as she had called me so I didn’t think an $80 (?) reading would hurt.. but she had her daughter call me and then long story short - she basically told me my dog was really sick and if I didn’t pay for a cleanse ($3.7k), I would be sorry. again, scared - I reluctantly went to see her in person and paid. A few weeks later.. her noticing me trying to distance myself from her, she insisted on coming over to my apt. I was too scared to let her come but I had stupidly gave her my address and told her the traffic was bad in the area and that I’d go see her. I wanted to go see her and tell her everything was good… but then all of the sudden I was cornered in their home, with my phones in the daughter’s possession.. with them telling me I needed to pay $8k for an amethyst crystal. I had to show her I didn’t have that much in my bank account and was still paying her because I was afraid of my personal safety. Later - family members found out as I was acting really off and stressed and scared and that’s when I finally blocked her and all numbers I could find of her online and filed a police report against her.
Just a hot tip — if a “psychic” asks you to buy gold coins, it’s probably not for a magic spell! The sad thing is, it doesn’t even seem like this person was giving the psychic money because they genuinely believed in her abilities, but rather because they were, at first, afraid of hurting her feelings and, later, afraid for their safety.
Hollie
I truly don’t know what it is with conspiracy theorists and woo practitioners and “quantum” everything. Is it that they think it makes their nonsense sound more scientific? Do they think it makes them sound smart? I really don’t know!
This one person may have only lost $50 to this “quantum healer,” but that is $50 too much to lose to a “quantum healer.”
Via Scamtracker:
[She] claims to be a psychic, shaman, reiki coach, holistic nutritionist, studying for a made up Ph.D. from an illegitimate and unlicensed college. Claims to be self-taught, spreads misinformation that is detrimental to not only one’s finances, but their health and quality of life by leaving unfulfilled promises of “healing.” She's told numerous women that recently miscarried she could, “heal their wombs” with quantum healing which is absurd and appalling to say the least. She preys on vulnerable and desperate people who are at the lowest points in their lives so she can do a “reading” which holds absolutely no basis in reality and is harmful to one’s psyche and mental well being as well, especially because what she promises never comes true which leaves unsatisfied customers feeling even more discouraged. Her readings are very broad, but claims she has some connection to a higher being. She exudes spiritual narcissism, spiritual/religious psychosis, and egocentric ideologies, which again, are harmful to not only her clients, but anyone she deems as not worthy or, “on her level.” This cult-like, false-prophet mindset is damaging and at the very least, surfeiting. She will take your money and then leave you even more hopeless and without answers.
I have a feeling that this lady might end up with a significant following, given the way that Mother God woman was able to reel a bunch of believers in with her nonsense. People love that shit.
Psychic Nadia
See, this is where I really start to have a problem with the idea that this kind of thing is all for fun and “for entertainment purposes only” — which is how they get away with charging people money for a non-existent service. I wouldn’t personally believe that someone I love would commit suicide unless I gave a psychic $750, but I don’t believe in anything and I’m not an especially vulnerable person in that way. Clearly, there are people who are, and people who are willing to take advantage of that.
Via Scamtracker:
At first the psychic medium was nice, then she became aggressive in the way she spoke and threatened me on all these made up terrible things about me and my family. Then she told me my daughter was going to commit suicide in 5 days unless we save her. The cost would be $750 but we need to do it now. She befriended me. She said she is in end stage heart failure and needs a transplant, Also a ploy for money. […] She said she performed researches, negativity clearances you name it. I was vulnerable, and she took advantage of me.
Clearly!
Maria and Larry Williams
One of the most common psychic scams involves the “psychics” telling people that they need to give them a huge amount of money on a “temporary basis” so that the money can be “cleansed” or used in some way to facilitate whatever spell they plan to do. Shockingly, that money is pretty much never returned.
This was the scam that led to the arrest of Sydney “gypsy” psychics (sorry for the epithet, but that’s what they called themselves) Maria and Larry Williams last month.
Via Sydney Herald:
Williams allegedly used the name “Anna” at the time and knew her visitor was separating from her husband, court documents claim. The woman was in financial distress and had relied upon friends and family for money during her divorce – she intended to sell the marital home and pay them back.
Williams allegedly warned the woman that “repaying the funds would be handing ‘bad spirits’ back to them”, the documents claim.
“Instead, the accused told the victim that the funds from the sale of the property would need to be cleansed,” the document reads.
The documents allege the woman sold the Matraville home and transferred more than $160,000 to the Williams’ bank accounts “on the basis that they would be returned within 21 days following the alleged cleansing process”.
Shocker: The money was not, in fact, returned within 21 days of cleansing it.
When the Williamses were arrested, police seized “antique statues and a sword, a crystal ball and World War II collectors’ memorabilia,” though it’s not clear whether those things were seized because they were evidence or because they were meant to provide some kind of restitution to the victim. Either option, frankly, leaves me with more questions than answers.
Tina Psychic
So here’s a new one — “psychics” are now using AI to scam people.
This person claims to be a "psychic artist" who will draw your soulmate for you for $30. However, the pictures she sends you are clearly AI generated, not hand drawn, and not personalized. This definitely feels like a scam operation although there is a refund option which I used so I was able to get my money back, but I still wanted to report this because it feels predatory.
A big hint here would be the fact that, when you go to her website, you can see that none of the “soulmates” appear to have been drawn by the same person.
Just uncanny, really!
Gina Russell
Fake psychic Gina Rita Russell was sentenced to 10 years in prison this year “for masterminding an elaborate fraud, extortion, and money laundering scheme, which resulted in a Maryland man embezzling more than $4 million from his Washington, D.C., employer.”
For 15 years, Russell had convinced a woman named Hollie Nadel that her psychic powers told her that terrible things would happen to her if she didn’t keep giving money to Russell and her entire family. Nadel first gave Russell money through her regular jobs and then through her father (who cut her off, eventually) and ultimately convinced her to start doing “sensual massages” and sex work in order to keep the money coming. That was how Nadel ended up meeting Daniel Zancan, an executive who fell madly in love with her and whom she convinced she was being targeted by the mafia, in order to get him to give money to Russell and her family. Russell even had her brother-in-law, Tony John Evans, call Zancan to threaten him and his children, in order to shake more money out of him.
In Conclusion!
There’s a lot of lonely people out there, and a lot of desperate ones — and a certain kind of person who lives to exploit them. Sometimes it’s bitcoin, sometimes it’s colloidal silver and horse pills, and sometimes it’s “psychic” frauds. Please don’t let yourself — or your loved ones! — get taken by bad people. Life’s hard enough without adding “got defrauded” to the mix.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
Here come the man
with that look in his eye
He's fed on nothing,
but full of pride
Look at them go, look at them kick
Makes you wonder how the other half live
Here come the world
with that look in its eye
Future uncertain,
but certainly bright
Look at the faces, listen to the bells
It's hard to believe we need a place called hell,
...................a place called hell
Here comes the woman
with that look in her eye
She's raised on leather,
with flesh on her mind
Her words weapons, sharper than knives
Makes you wonder how the other half die...
I went to a psychic once. I knocked on her front door.
She yelled: “Who is it?”
So I left.
*
HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL!