Fortune telling fraud

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While the fortune teller entertains him, he is robbed from behind. "The Fortune Teller" by Simon Vouet. Vouet, Simon - The Fortune Teller.jpg
While the fortune teller entertains him, he is robbed from behind. "The Fortune Teller" by Simon Vouet.

Fortune telling fraud, also called the bujo or egg curse scam, is a type of confidence trick, based on a claim of secret or occult information. The basic feature of the scam involves diagnosing the victim (the "mark") with some sort of secret problem that only the grifter can detect or diagnose, and then charging the mark for ineffectual treatments. The archetypical grifter working the scam is a fortune teller who announces that the mark is suffering from a curse that their magic can relieve, while threatening dire consequences if the curse is not lifted. [1] [2]

Contents

Method

In this scam, a fortune teller uses cold reading to detect that a client is genuinely troubled rather than merely seeking entertainment; or is a gambler complaining of bad luck. The fortune teller informs the mark that they are the victim of a curse, but that for a fee a spell can be cast to remove the curse. In Romani, this trick is called bujo, originally meaning simply "bag", but now meaning "a swindle involving a large amount of money from a gullible fortune-telling customer." [3]

This name comes from a traditional form: the mark is told that the curse is in their money; they bring money in a bag to have the spell cast over it, and leave with a bag of worthless paper; [4] or money or property are given to the fortune teller to be destroyed as bearing the curse, and an item of lesser value is swapped and conspicuously destroyed instead. [5] In some cases the curse is "verified" by a sleight of hand trick, often involving an egg. The grifter tells the mark to bring an egg to a reading, [6] which when cracked open reveals disgusting matter or symbols of evil. This discovery confirms the curse. [7] [8]

Incidents

These scams continue into the present day. A 1996 reported decision out of Hawaii described the scam as "a centuries old confidence game that victimized the elderly or those with emotional problems", describing its operation in this manner:

In the Bujo, one of the female members of the Merino clan would tell the client that the future holds evil. Sleight of hand tricks, such as removing a clump of hair from a newly broken egg, were used as evidence that a client was either possessed by an evil spirit or under the influence of a curse. The female member of the Merino clan devised methods of extracting the victim's money. The victim may have been told that the money was the root of all evil, that it had to be tossed into the ocean or buried near a fresh grave in a graveyard, and credit cards were used on extravagant shopping sprees to purchase food, clothing, jewelry, and other merchandise for members of the Merino family's use and enjoyment. [9]

A Texas woman was sentenced to 2+1⁄2 years on federal charges for wire fraud and money laundering after she operated a scam involving a psychic telephone line. Not only did she receive fees of several hundred dollars for her psychic counselling, but she also convinced her clients to send her money and property to be cleansed of "evil". [10] In 2002, two self-described California based psychics were indicted on Federal mail fraud charges after persuading people to pay them to be cleared of bad karma. [11] In 2006, two Connecticut women told another woman that God was going to kill her unless she paid them to perform various rituals, including chicken sacrifices, on her behalf. [12] In Palmdale, California, a psychic reader was accused of inducing a 12-year-old girl to steal $10,000 worth of jewelry from her parents by threats of a curse. [13] In 2013, con artists running a classic bujo scam were reportedly targeting Asian immigrants in New York City, tailoring their tales of curses to fit the Chinese folk religion. [14] In Florida, a tarot card reader was found guilty for fleecing romance writer Jude Deveraux out of more than 25 million dollars. [15]

In December 2018 Janet Lee, also known as the Greenwich psychic, was ordered by a judge in a civil lawsuit to pay one of her clients back $30,000. [16] In 2015 Lee had convinced the client to hand over her entire life savings to Lee in cash for cleansing as there were "dark forces" surrounding the money. She told the client that she would put the money in a safety box in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan for 6 months until the money was cleansed. At the end of the 6 months, Lee refused to give the money back forcing the client to file the lawsuit. [17]

Bob Nygaard

Beginning in 2008, Bob Nygaard, a retired New York City policeman became notable due to his work as a private detective investigating psychic fraud cases after he retired from the police force. Nygaard has claimed that the scope of this problem in the United States is very large. As an example, Nygaard discussed a case he personally worked where his client was defrauded of $900,000, [18] and he was aware of another in which a woman was defrauded of $17 million by fortune-tellers. [19]

In 2018, CBS aired an episode of its show Pink Collar Crimes , titled "The Psychic Didn't See Him Coming" which told the story of Nygaard's investigation of "psychic" Gina Marie Marks' crimes for 10 years. Nygaard played himself on the show. [20] [21]

A Skeptical Inquirer article reported that, as of February 2020, Nygaard had "helped to cause approximately forty self-proclaimed psychics to be arrested and successfully convicted" and had helped victims recover over $4 million. Regarding the recovery amount, Nygaard said that the $4 million reflects what his clients have recovered as a result of his efforts. The criminal restitution orders, he says, were for much more. However, victims are largely unable to collect on such orders given that self-proclaimed psychics rarely keep any assets in their names. [22]

Unification Church

The Unification Church (UC) is a new religion founded by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul in 1954, with its missionaries beginning activities in Japan in 1958. The UC is accused of engaging in what is locally termed "spiritual sales" (Japanese : 霊感商法, romanized: reikan shōhō). The UC would tell their targets that they must donate to the church or they or their relatives, either living or deceased, would be damned to hell. [23] The UC demands their targets to donate all of their savings, as well as sell their properties or apply for loans for the payments. The UC also sells religious merchandise such as inkan, pottery, art and ginseng with extremely high price tags, all claimed to be able to bring good luck to the believers. [24] According to the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, an anti-cult lawyers' group, the confirmed financial damages linked to the UC during the 35 years through 2021 surpassed 123.7 billion yen (899.2 million USD). [25]

According to the Japanese lawyer Masaki Kito, who also represents the anti-cult lawyers' group, the UC specifically targets the Japanese people because of the invasion of Korea by Japan. The UC would tell their target that "in order to atone that sin, you must make contributions to Korea". [26]

UC's practice of spiritual sales was widely reported by Japanese media as the primary cause which drove the prime suspect Tetsuya Yamagami, whose mother went bankrupt due to her exorbitant donations to the church, to assassinate former prime minister Shinzo Abe on 8 July 2022. The event led to a significant decrease in the approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet. Just after incumbent prime minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet reshuffle, the newly appointed Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono announced on 12 August 2022 to quickly form a review committee in the Consumer Affairs Agency to deal with the issues of spiritual sales. [27] Urged by organizations of anti-cultism and cult victims, on 10 December 2022, Japan's parliament passed new laws of "Prevention of Unfair Solicitation of Donations by Corporations Act  [ ja ]" which criminalizes corporations for acquiring donations against the claimant's free will or causing the claimant to apply for loans for donation. It grants legal rights for the claimant, as well as the claimant's spouse or children, to cancel the donation or demand restitution if the donation is proven illegal. [28] [29]

A desire to protect people from this scam has been one argument made to justify legislation that makes fortune telling a crime. [30] A New York State statute condemns a person who "claims or pretends" to "influence or affect evil spirits or curses" in its prohibition of fortune telling, while letting a person "who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement" off the hook. [31] Most current judicial opinions have held that fortune telling in itself is protected speech under the First Amendment, [32] though some judges have noted that "such devices are routinely, if not uniformly used to bilk or fleece gullible patrons." [33]

High tech variants

In the Datalink Computer Services incident, a mark was fleeced of several million dollars by a firm that claimed that his computer was infected with viruses, and that the infection indicated an elaborate conspiracy against him on the Internet, involving the Central Intelligence Agency and Opus Dei. The victim was charged for elaborate and unnecessary computer security services, including the claim that a member of the Indian military had been sent to Honduras to investigate the source of the virus. [34] [35] [36] The alleged scam lasted from August 2004 through October 2010 and is estimated to have cost the victim between 6 and US$20 million. [34] [37] The victim later stated that he had been defrauded by "grifters of the highest order". [38]

See Telemarketing fraud for information about a common scam in which fraud artists install malware on victims' computers.

The US television series Shut Eye features a number of fictional examples of fortune telling fraud in the first six minutes of the first episode (S01E01, Death). The egg curse scam is shown being perpetrated by a fraudulent fortune teller. At the end of the ritual, as the client's money is supposedly being burned, the client strikes the fortune teller from her chair. The client searches the fortune teller's garments and finds the client's original egg and money. He then warns the fortune teller: “You don’t work bujo. Ever. Bujo is ours.” Later in the episode, it is revealed that the client represents Romani fortune tellers. [39]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fortune-telling</span> Practice of predicting information about a persons life

Fortune telling is the unproven spiritual practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychic</span> Person claiming extrasensory perception abilities

A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology such as extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, such as psychokinesis or teleportation. Although many people believe in psychic abilities, the scientific consensus is that there is no proof of the existence of such powers, and describes the practice as pseudoscience. The word "psychic" is also used as an adjective to describe such abilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scam</span> Attempt to defraud a person or group

A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators at the expense of their victims ". Some people consider a pyramid scheme to be a type of scam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miss Cleo</span> American phone and television psychic (1962–2016)

Youree Dell Harris was an American television personality and actress best known for portraying Miss Cleo, a spokeswoman for a psychic pay-per-call-minute service called Psychic Readers Network, in a series of television commercials that aired from 1997 to 2003. Harris used various aliases, including Ree Perris, Youree Cleomili, Youree Dell Harris, Youree Perris, Rae Dell Harris, Cleomili Perris Youree, and Cleomili Harris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet fraud</span> Fraud or deception using the Internet

Internet fraud is a type of cybercrime fraud or deception which makes use of the Internet and could involve hiding of information or providing incorrect information for the purpose of tricking victims out of money, property, and inheritance. Internet fraud is not considered a single, distinctive crime but covers a range of illegal and illicit actions that are committed in cyberspace. It is, however, differentiated from theft since, in this case, the victim voluntarily and knowingly provides the information, money or property to the perpetrator. It is also distinguished by the way it involves temporally and spatially separated offenders.

The Japanese sect Ho No Hana Sanpogyo was a new religious movement founded by "His Holiness" Hogen Fukunaga. The sect was found to have engaged in fortune telling fraud in Japan.

Affinity fraud is a form of investment fraud in which the fraudster preys upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, language minorities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are – or successfully pretend to be – members of the group. They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme, by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile. Many times, those leaders become unwitting victims of the fraudster's ruse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gina Marks</span> American psychic and convicted fraudster (born 1973)

Gina Marie Marks is an American psychic and convicted fraudster. Using the pseudonym of Regina Milbourne, she co-authored Miami Psychic: Confessions of a Confidante, a memoir published by HarperCollins in 2006.

<i>Miami Psychic</i> 2006 memoir by Gina Marie Marks

Miami Psychic: Confessions of a Confidante is a 2006 memoir published by the Regan Books division of HarperCollins. The authors are listed as Regina Milbourne and Yvonne Carey-Lederer.

Rosemary Altea is a British author who describes herself as a medium and healer. She has appeared on various programs, including Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and featured in the series premiere of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! alongside mentalist Mark Edward. She has written six books and claims to have a "healing foundation".

The Maria Duval scam is one of the most successful mail scams in history, having defrauded millions of people out of at least $200 million over twenty years. Targeting sick and elderly people through a combination of personalized letters and personal information databases, it has been shut down in the United States in 2016, but is still ongoing in many countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Edward</span> American mentalist, magician, author and skeptic (born 1951)

Mark Edward is an American mentalist and author. He has written books on mentalism, séance theory and production, including Psychic Blues published in 2009, where he discusses working for the Psychic Friends Network. Wilson has appeared on television as both primary consultant and on-air performer in such diverse programming as ABC's "The Con", A & E's Biography: "Houdini, the Great Escape", NBC's "The Other Side" and "Psychic Secrets Revealed", The Sci-Fi Channel's "Mysteries, Magic and Miracles", The Discovery Channel's "Forces Beyond", and on two episodes of The Learning Channel's "Exploring the Unknown". His featured segment as a spirit medium on the pilot episode of Showtime's "Penn & Teller's Bullshit!" series entitled "Speaking with the Dead" helped secure an Emmy Award nomination for that episode in 2002. He is a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blessing scam</span> Confidence scam against elderly people

The blessing scam, also called the ghost scam or jewelry scam, is a confidence trick typically perpetrated against elderly women of Chinese origin. The scam originated in China and Hong Kong and victims have fallen to it worldwide including in Chinatowns and overseas Chinese communities. The object of the scam is to persuade the victim to put valuables into a bag, which the perpetrator then secretly swaps for a different bag, enabling them to take the valuables.

Rose Marks is the American matriarch of a family of fraudulent psychics convicted of federal crimes in 2013 in Florida. Marks and members of her extended family operated multiple storefront businesses, four in Broward County, Florida one of which was in Fort Lauderdale, named "Astrology Life" and one in Manhattan on W. 58th Street near Central Park. They told vulnerable clients that the only solution to their problems was to give the purported psychics money. Prior to this case there was doubt that a psychic could be criminally charged. Jurors were told that fortune-telling is constitutionally protected free speech, but federal prosecutors contended Marks engaged in fraud by promising to keep clients' money safe, "cleanse" it and return it when she had no intention of returning it. The case drew widespread coverage. Charles Stack, a retired Fort Lauderdale police detective, said the case and the ensuing publicity brought attention to predatory and fraudulent fortune tellers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Nygaard</span> Private detective specializing in psychic fraud

Bob Nygaard is an American private investigator (PI) specializing in the investigation of confidence crimes, most notably psychic fraud. He has been instrumental in the arrest and conviction of numerous psychics, helping their victims obtain justice including financial restitution amounting to millions of dollars. He has consulted for ABC News and 20/20 as a specialist in psychic fraud. Nygaard previously was a member of the New York City Transit Police and Nassau County Police Department, retiring from service in 2008.

Janet Lee, also known as the Greenwich psychic and the Bedford psychic, is an American psychic based in Bedford Hills, New York. She has been working as a psychic since the late 1990s and says she was born with the gift. Her specialities include psychic readings, tarot card readings and past life readings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David P. Bloom</span> American fraudster (born 1964)

David Peter Bloom is a twice convicted American fraudster who defrauded investors of almost $15 million in the 1980s.

The National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales is a non-profit anti-cult association established in May 1987, comprising about 300 lawyers in Japan. It is specialized in providing legal assistance for victims of cult-related frauds, known as spiritual sales (霊感商法) in Japan, from religious organizations, primarily the Unification Church (UC), as well as advocating preventive measures against the malpractices.

References

  1. ↑ Illinois State Police, Common Citizen Scams Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine , accessed Nov. 17, 2010
  2. ↑ People v. Bertsche, 265 Ill. 272, 106 N.E. 823 (Ill. 1914)
  3. ↑ Anne Sutherland, in Gypsies, Tinkers, and Other Travellers (Academic Press, 1975)
  4. ↑ See, e.g., Marks v. State, 144 Tex.Crim. 509, 164 S.W.2d 690 (Tex.Crim.App. 1942)
  5. ↑ W. W. Zellner, William M. Kephart, Extraordinary groups: an examination of unconventional lifestyles (Macmillan, 2000; ISBN   1-57259-953-7), pp. 121–122
  6. ↑ Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison, The Truth About Psychics: What's Real, What's Not, and How to Tell the Difference (Simon and Schuster, 2009; ISBN   1-4391-4972-0), pp. 230-321
  7. ↑ Illinois State Police, above
  8. ↑ Skip Hollandsworth, "The Curse of Romeo and Juliet", Texas Monthly, June 1997
  9. ↑ State v. Merino, 81 Hawai'i 198, 915 P.2d 672, 681 (Hawai'i 1996)
  10. ↑ M. Anderson, "Woodway woman sentenced to 21/2 years prison in psychic scam", Waco Tribune-Herald, Dec 5, 2001
  11. ↑ David Rosenzweig, "'Psychics' Bilked and Badgered Clients, Indictment Says" Los Angeles Times, Mar. 30, 2002
  12. ↑ "Women accused of satanic ritual scam", Connecticut Post, August 20, 2006
  13. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Psychic said stealing jewelry would remove curse, sheriff says", Oct. 7, 2011
  14. ↑ Long, Colleen (5 July 2013). "'Evil spirit' scam plagues Asian immigrants in NYC". Yahoo! News / AP. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  15. ↑ Kim, Susamma (28 August 2013). "Trial Begins for Fla. Fortune Teller Accused of $25 Million Fraud". Yahoo. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  16. ↑ Marchant, Rob (8 December 2018). "'Greenwich psychic' sues P.I. after grand larceny arrest". Greenwich Time. Archived from the original on 8 December 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  17. ↑ Wilson, Michael (5 August 2017). "Psychic Saw a New Home in Her Future, Before Crossing Paths With Police". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  18. ↑ Uliano, Dick (3 October 2015). "Police: Psychic cheats local woman of $77,000, fails to foresee arrest". wtop.com. Archived from the original on 25 July 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  19. ↑ Powell, Robert Andrew (18 February 2014). "The Psychic, The Novelist, and the $17 Million Scam". Reader's Digest. Archived from the original on 25 February 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  20. ↑ "The Psychic Didn't See Him Coming". TV Guide. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  21. ↑ "Pink Collar Crimes – The Tip Of The Iceberg". MSN.com. MSN. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  22. ↑ Palmer, Rob (17 February 2020). "A Psychic Fraud Investigator Weighs In On The Goop Lab". skepticalinquirer.org. CFI. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  23. ↑ "Japan lawyers accuse Unification Church of entrapping many families following Abe killing", Japan Times , 30 July 2022, retrieved 2 August 2022
  24. ↑ "旧統一教会の元信者の衝撃告白 私が見た「山上容疑者」と母親の「法外な献金」", Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese), 16 July 2022, retrieved 2 August 2022
  25. ↑ "EDITORIAL: Politicians' ties to Unification Church should be made public". Asahi Shimbun . 22 July 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  26. ↑ "紀藤弁護士、旧統一教会への献金に日韓格差指摘 戦前の「罪」理由に". daily.co.jp (in Japanese). 15 July 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  27. ↑ "Shake-up fails to lift support for Japan's cabinet amid questions over church -surveys", Reuters , 12 August 2022, retrieved 12 August 2022
  28. ↑ "Japan enacts law to help victims of religious donations", Kyodo News , 10 December 2022, retrieved 3 February 2023
  29. ↑ 法人等による寄附の不当な勧誘の防止等に関する法律案（概要） (PDF) (in Japanese). Consumer Affairs Agency . Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  30. ↑ Spiritual Psychic Science Church v. City of Azusa (1985) 39 Cal.3d 501 , 217 Cal.Rptr. 225; 703 P.2d 1119
  31. ↑ Laws of New York, 165.35
  32. ↑ Spiritual Psychic Science Church, 39 Cal.3d at 513–515
  33. ↑ Spiritual Psychic Science Church, 39 Cal.3d at 521 (Justice Lucas, dissenting); see also In re Bartha (1976) 63 Cal.App.3d 584, 591; 134 Cal.Rptr. 39
  34. 1 2 "Heir to schlumberger OILfield services fortune fleeced of at least six million dollars". Press Release. Westchester County District Attorney. 8 November 2010. Archived from the original on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  35. ↑ El-Ghobashy, Tamer (9 November 2010). "Virus Leads to $20 Million Scam WSJ.com". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  36. ↑ Fernandez, Manny (9 November 2010). "Man Held in Defrauding Roger Davidson, Musician". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  37. ↑ Zetter, Kim (9 November 2010). "Computer Virus Leads to $20 Million Scam Targeting Pianist Composer | Threat Level | Wired.com". Wired News . Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  38. ↑ Shawn Cohen, "Oil heir Roger Davidson says he was a victim of 'grifters'" (Nov. 10, 2010), lohud.com, accessed Nov. 28, 2010.
  39. ↑ "Shut Eye". Hulu.com. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
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