2022 In Psychics Scamming People Out Of Lots And Lots Of Money
For the love of everything, do not give these people your money.
When one is going through a difficult time in life — the loss of a loved one, romance issues, financial issues, etc. — it can be tempting to believe the problem can be solved by magic. Literal magic, sometimes. Thus, there are thousands and thousands of people across the country and on the internet waiting to take advantage of that impulse in order to line their own pockets. And unlike professionals of literally any other kind, they are not required to produce any actual results because they are "for entertainment purposes only."
How fabulously entertaining it is for people to be told they need to cough up hundreds or thousands (or even millions) of dollars to end a "family curse" I'm not so sure — but as a polite reminder to definitely not ever do that, here are some of the scammiest psychics this year, mostly courtesy of the BBB's Scamtracker.
"Voted #1 Psychic"
It's not clear what election this Instagram psychic won, but they managed to con $17,695 out of someone — which they probably spent on buying their 84K Instagram followers (with only 26 posts! Impressive!).
Via Scamtracker:
Psychic took advantage of my desperation and vulnerability after a breakup and claimed my soul and significant other soul needed healing from negative karma. Psychic also promised to help me out of depression. Psychic kept asking for money, making it seem like it was urgent, needing to buy more “energy.” Psychic made up believable stories about my significant other’s past and made me feel my life would be ruined if I did not pay her money to do all the work so I could live a happy life. It has dragged on, psychic promised I would get most of my money back once special materials were returned and the “work was finalized,” that it was just “borrowed.” Still have not received money back and barely get responses. Keeps giving me the run around and dragging things on, no concrete answers, avoidance of returning materials to give me most of my money back.
I don't know much about psychic stuff, but I can't quite see how that kind of "energy" would cost money. Does it not come from the ether or The Powers That Be?
Monica, Hands of Light
This person, who says they were in a vulnerable state at the time, ended up spending $700 so some lady named Monica could "cleanse" them and then not remove a curse she said someone put on them. Sadly, the only thing truly cursed was their Instagram feed.
Via Scamtracker:
She said that lifting this curse, will indeed make my life better in all aspects. The next day she had messaged me asking how I was and I was busy and didn't respond right now. I was really reluctant on paying more and she said okay well I take my work very seriously and have lots of other clients. "I can't force you to want to make your life better" - that guilted me so much and she made me feel extremely bad for doubting her abilities. So I apologized and she said she would be with me every step of the way and wouldn't leave my side. So I paid it. It has been three days and I haven't heard from her since.
Yeah, don't give hundreds of dollars to people on Instagram who tell you that you are cursed?
Treasure Island? More like ... opposite of that.
Patricia Miller, South Beach Psychic, reportedly approached someone visiting Treasure Island in Miami to offer a psychic reading for the extremely normal price of $500, informing them that she is "licensed in five states." Because they give out licenses to psychics. This person thought to themselves, "Sure, why not? I could buy a whole entire Gucci scarf for that much, but I'm going to instead give it to this random lady hanging around telling me she has magic powers."
Via Scamtracker:
She stated that was enough for her services and that she would need to collect some materials to finish her work. We agree to meet the next morning at 10 AM to finish. She then stated that all I need to do was provide her a tip. [...] She then informed me we needed to perform a ceremony to complete the service. If I could get a room to perfom [sic] the ceremony and to not worry that all the money I was going to use would be given back to me. That since I was such a good person she was going to do her work pro-bono. She stated she was going to give me half back of the 500 and that all I needed to do was give her a tip. [...] She then informed me it was a money ritual I needed to perfom [sic]. And that we needed to collect money from my account and all the cash that I had on me. She kept assuring me not to worry none of that money was going to be used for anything. That all I would need to do is to put the money in an envelope, in my right shoe and in my left shoe. Place gift cards and money on the bed. That once the ceremony was done I'd have all that money back. We then collected my money from atms.
Boy does that ever seem legit! Who would ever guess what happened next?
We then finished collecting the last of the materials needed at Walgreens. We returned to Treasure island to finish her service. Once in the room she kept pushing for me to get more money out and that's when I started to become uncomfortable and started to suspect it was a scam. I told her I was becoming uncomfortable. She then stated she just needed to run downstairs to get eggs to finish and that she'd be right back. She stole all the money from the room totaling $3800 and never returned.
And the shoes? Did she steal the shoes?
You will be shocked to find that although Patricia said that she regularly performed psychic shows at the Bellagio, she does not in fact do that.
Her actual name is Samantha Stevens? Really? Samantha Stevens?
While most "psychics" will be able to go on conning people forever with little to no consequences, in mid-December a woman named Samantha Stevens and her partner (not named Darren) were sentenced to federal prison for scamming a woman out of three million dollars over the course of several years.
Via ABC:
According to court documents, Stevens was portraying herself as a psychic and fortune teller in 2012 when she met a victim in Miami. Stevens gained the victim’s trust and convinced her that a curse had been placed on her and her family. Stevens claimed she needed to perform rituals on large sums of money in order to lift the curse. The victim was told that failing to do so would result in harm to her and her family, prosecutors said.
Stevens will also be required to pay over $3 million in restitution to the victim, which does seem unlikely to happen given that she already spent all of the money on "vehicles, property and casino gambling." It is not clear what will happen to little Tabitha.
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SHOCKER! Suspect Arrested In Idaho Murders Not Who TikTok Psychic Said It Would Be!
We're sure she's very sorry, or not!
An arrest has been made in the horrific murders of four University of Idaho students — and shockingly enough, it is not in fact the history professor that TikTok psychic Ashley Guillard has been accusing for weeks.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was taken into custody by police in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, and held for extradition on suspicion of having killed Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin in the early hours of November 13. Two other roommates actually slept through the attacks and called 911 the next morning, thinking one of the victims had merely passed out and wouldn't wake up.
What we know about Bryan Kohberger so far
Kohberger is a 28-year-old student at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington (about 15 minutes from where the murders occurred), pursuing a PhD from the school's Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology.
Redditors discovered that he may have had an account on the site, which he used to ask those in the r/ex_cons subreddit to participate in some research he was doing while a student at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, where he received his graduate degree in the subject.
He wrote, allegedly:
My name is Bryan, and I am inviting you to participate in a research project that seeks to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime. In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience. In the event that your most recent offense was not one that led to a conviction, you may still participate. Additional surveys are included after the open-ended section as to best understand your unique traits. The study should take about 15-20 minutes to fully complete.Your identity and all answers provided are completely confidential, and the link to the survey is also an anonymous link. This research has been approved by the DeSales University IRB. Participants must be 18 years of age and older. If you opt to participate, you may terminate participation at any time and for any reason. If you have any questions about this research, you may contact the research team via email.
The survey itself included questions like "How did you leave the scene?"; "How did you travel to and enter the location that the crime occurred?"; and "After arriving, what steps did you take prior to locating the victim or target?"
While not evidence, they do seem to be questions that might be helpful were one planning to commit a murder or spate of murders.
Public records show that Kohberger is a registered libertarian.
It is not yet clear what the motivation for the attack was or how Kohberger is connected to the students, though it is very clear that history department chair Rebecca Scofield, who was not even in town the night of the murders, had nothing to do with it. TikTok psychic Guillard has yet to respond to the news and, in the last video she recorded, accused Scofield of contacting her ex-boyfriend in hopes of getting him to "betray" her in some capacity.
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'Psychic' Sued By Professor She Baselessly Insists Killed Four People
And she's sticking to her story.
On November 13, four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death in their off-campus residence. Since then, rumors have swirled around the internet, police have received thousands of tips and the case has so far not gone anywhere.
One person, however, is very sure she knows who did it. Ashley Guillard doesn't know any of the victims and she lives in Texas, but she swears she knows for a fact that the murderer is none other than the university's history department chair, Rebecca Scofield. How does she know this? Because her magic tarot cards and psychic powers told her so.
READ MORE: Scammy Psychic TikTokers Claimed To Know What Happened To Gabby Petito
For the last month, Guillard has been on TikTok, where she frequently uses her magic powers to "solve" mysteries, accusing Scofield of having killed the students over an affair she was having with one of the female victims. The cards told her there were two killers and that one of them was a professor, and when she looked at them, the word "history" kept coming into her mind. So she did readings for all of the University of Idaho history faculty and the one she did for Scofield told her Scofield had ordered the killing of the four roommates, because she was jealous and scared she would get in trouble for having an affair with a student should it come out.
From the beginning, Guillard has had her critics, leading her to becoming increasingly agitated with their refusal to take her word for things. In one video she smugly tells her haters that "The best part of the reading says that Rebecca Scofield is going to prison whether you like it or not. It says that she’s not in control, that you’re not in control, that an official person, someone in law enforcement, will be the one giving the orders."
At first, Scofield sent Guillard a number of cease-and-desist letters, which Guillard laughed about in TikTok videos, claiming that if Scofield seriously believed Guillard were making false statements, she would "file actual legal documents in a federal court...asking me to remove it. A judge will then determine if I need to remove it." She also claimed Scofield could not sue her for defamation because that would require she prove she was not guilty of the murders, which she can't do until someone else is found guilty of them. (Scofield was out of town when they occurred). This is nonsense, because Scofield is not a public figure and therefore would not need to prove actual malice. Guillard's tarot cards probably forgot to mention that.
Since Guillard, who also has a website titled "Ashley Is God," refused to take the videos down and apologize, Scofield has done as she asked and filed an official lawsuit against her.
The lawsuit alleges that Guillard is ruining Scofield's reputation by insisting she is a murderer, and moreover costing her money and putting her and her entire family in danger.
Guillard’s false TikToks defamed Professor Scofield because they were viewed millions of times and widely reposted by other TikTok users, resulting in Professor Scofield’s name being linked to “murder” in a basic internet search. As a result of Guillard’s false statements, Professor Scofield’s reputation was injured, and she was subject to online ridicule and threats from Guillard’s online commenters. She also fears that she or her family will be the target of physical violence.
Good for her. A lot of people feel like it's better to ignore these kinds of charlatans for fear of Streisand Effect-ing themselves or giving credence to their nonsense, but they need to be held responsible and liable for the harm they cause the same way they would if they were not claiming to have received their information from a magic deck of cards.
In response, Guillard has said she is excited to go to court so she can present her "evidence" against Scofield under oath, which she believes will ultimately lead to her conviction for the four murders.
Everyone speculates on who they think the murderer will be on TV mysteries or on True Crime shows like "Dateline." (Hint: It's almost always gonna be the person they film from the neck up for the first half of the show, so you don't see their prison uniform.) Some of us have theories on who Jack The Ripper (Francis Tumblety) or the Zodiac killer (leaning towards Lawrence Kaye) were, or whether Jeffrey MacDonald actually killed his whole family or not (not). But this is a world away from some semi-innocent armchair detective game. This is someone claiming they know for a fact who killed someone — a person who had nothing to do with the crime whatsoever — because they have magic powers. People like this frequently harass families of crime victims and missing persons, harass their "suspects," and thanks to social media, now have their acolytes doing it as well.
It's never going to be outlawed because of free speech, but that doesn't mean it needs to be tolerated. The more it's discussed, the more frequently these people are called out for being wrong, the less likely people will be to fall prey to their bullshit.
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Iowa 'Psychic' Barred From Magically Healing People After Client's Death
Why is this allowed to begin with?
An Iowa psychic has agreed to pay a $2000 fine and barred from offering to "heal, cure, treat, prevent, or mitigate clients’ physical or mental health" following the suicide death of a client she "misdiagnosed."
According to a report from the Iowa Attorney General's office, 53-year-old Craig Courtney sought help from psychic medium "healer" Allison Campbell following a fall in his home. Campbell had advertised her healing services and purposely sought people with “with at least one physical illness or injury that they would like worked on" despite having no medical background and also sought to help people with mental health issues she was similarly unqualified to address.
Becky Courtney, his widow, filed a consumer complaint in which she explained that her husband saw Campbell three times for "healing" and other services, and was told by Campbell that his entire body was filled with cancer and that he would undergo one surgery and then die within three-to-five months. Not wanting to deal with any of that, Craig Courtney committed suicide in July of this year.
He did not, of course, have cancer.
Via Iowa Attorney General's Office:
Campbell has denied all allegations and some of them are impossible to document because the only witnesses to some of them were Campbell and Craig Courtney. However, documented text messages exchanged between the two appeared to demonstrate that Courtney had sought Campbell’s advice about serious physical health issues he falsely believed he was experiencing, including throat cancer. She had performed an alleged “body scan” that suggested Courtney was suffering from conditions about which he was worried. Further, a video Campbell posted to her promotional social media accounts also showed a portion of a conversation in which Campbell suggested Courtney’s back injury would require medical intervention. Evidence further suggested Courtney took Campbell’s readings literally, as a Google review of Campbell’s business posted by Courtney read: “I’m not a believer but Allison cured me of this. VERY ACCURATE.”
While Courtney also sought the treatment of a licensed doctor and proper medical tests showed no signs of throat cancer, Campbell allegedly advised that through her experience in the medical field, she believed a mass in Courtney’s throat “may not be visible to doctors due to being under the tissue,” according to Becky Courtney’s complaint.
The Iowa Attorney General's office determined that Campbell had violated the Consumer Fraud Protection Act by:
- Seeking people to “practice healing” on, including those “with at least one physical illness or injury that they would like worked on,” despite not being competent to do so.
- Soliciting customers to purchase services that could “help you research your grief and bring new knowledge to help you move forward,” despite not being competent to opine on mental health disorders.
- Discussing physical injuries with clients despite a lack of professional medical competency.
- Failing to comply with the Door-to-Door Sales Act.
Per an agreement with Democratic Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Campbell will no longer be allowed to do any of these things and must tell clients with physical illnesses or injuries or mental health issues to seek help from a qualified professional.
Allison Campbell's website still claims that she blends psychic powers with science, because of course it does.
My name is Allison Campbell, and I am just a normal (normal being relative of course) person who happens to have psychic medium abilities. A Medical Laboratory Scientist by trade, and psychic medium by chance, my unique background has provided me with the opportunity to blend science and spirit, and I believe in sharing spirit's messages with love, authenticity, kindness, and compassion, all the while keeping everything "down to earth."
What's more "down to earth" than telling people they have throat cancer when they don't have throat cancer?
I so very much want to be all "live and let live" and "whatever gets you through the day!" about people believing in magic powers, psychics, ghosts, astrology, magic healing crystals, water having feelings or a memory and other things that are not, you know ... real. I'm not a person who likes to hurt people who are not hurting anyone else and to be entirely honest I feel deeply uncomfortable with how hurt people get when I express my skepticism on these subjects.
That being said ... this bitch is evil.
Medium Allison Dubois on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, because irony.
This is an evil thing to do. A person is dead because they believed in her bullshit. A person committed suicide because she told them they were dying of cancer and they believed her. This is the literal opposite of "live and let live!" and "whatever gets you through the day!"
Craig Courtney did not live, he did not get through the day.
There are also lots of other people who, while they have not necessarily lost their lives, have lost thousands and thousands of dollars.
There needs to be some amount of regulation with these things, just like any other business, especially when it comes to health issues. It's messed up to charge people to heal them magically to begin with, but there's something especially cruel about doing it in a country where access to actual health care is out of reach for so many people. This is getting somewhat better in some areas — a DC court recently revived a lawsuit against CVS and Walgreens for their stores placing "homeopathic" products next to actual medicine, the FDA barred Jim Bakker from claiming his magical silver solution cured COVID and cracked down on a lot of other health scams during the pandemic as well — but we need to do better.
There has to be some line drawn between letting people believe what they want and letting them scam vulnerable people.
If it were just people getting their palms or tarot cards read for funsies or if it were just "mediums" cracking their toes under the table to convince rich people they were communicating with their dead relatives, that would be one thing. It's not. It's people like Allison Campbell telling people they have cancer when they don't, it's Sylvia Browne telling people their kids are dead when they're not. It's people actively using their claims of magic powers to hurt and scam people and it shouldn't just be allowed because it's been labeled "for entertainment purposes only."
OPEN THREAD!
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