By: Matt | Last updated April 14, 2020 
Psychic services are worth around $2 billion per year in the US alone. That is a lot of money to be spent on someone whose entire livelihood is based on your trust. And psychic readings aren’t exact sciences, backed up by proven theories and certified formulas, but by Tarot cards and crystal bowls.
It is one thing to throw some money away on a reading just for your mere entertainment or out of simple curiosity and another to put your whole earnings at stake or fall into debt out of naivety and desperation.
A fake clairvoyant’s biggest strength is figuring out who they’re dealing with and harnessing people’s weaknesses for their own profit. Almost 60% of Americans believe in psychics and ESP (extrasensory perception).
There have been a lot of scammers out there throughout the history and there still are. Some of them were only caught after making hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions off their victims, while others still roam free, cashing in on your vulnerability. Internet has made things easier than ever before, so spotting the difference between a harmless, clean reader and a fraud, has become even a more difficult task.
Here are some of the most common scams you should keep an eye for:
Email scams. They can function in various ways. For instance, you might receive a troubling e-mail from a so-called ‘legitimate’ medium who claims he has a very important message to give you, maybe from someone beloved who passed away or from someone else. While you might become curious and tempted enough to go further, the catch will follow: in order to receive the entire message, you have to pay the following sum………
Another common e-mail scam is the vague, impersonal reading you receive from a certain psychic service that you paid for. You pay the fee and all you get is an ambiguous, neutral e-mail that could apply to basically anyone.
Fortune tellers who claim they can cure illnesses. Fake psychics will ask a lot of questions, but not because they care about you or because they have good intentions. They are simply aware that the more they know about you, the easier it will get to find your weak spot. If you suffer from a serious or even worse, an incurable illness, they will strive to use that information anyway they can, promising you relief in exchange for ridiculous fees. Don’t trust anyone but your doctor for medical advice and keep in mind that not even legitimate psychics aren’t trained in medicine.
Lottery winning numbers. You might laugh at this one, but there are still people out there, naïve enough to believe their psychic will help them hit the jackpot.
The curse con. This one’s an oldie but goldie, too. You pay for a reading and the ‘psychic’ starts telling you that you’ve recently experienced a negative, tragic or sad feeling (of course you might have, who isn’t?). You tend to confirm it and then they let you have it: you are cursed. How do you get rid of the curse and your bad luck? By paying them to broke the curse, through charms, rituals and so on.
Scammers have many other tricks up their sleeve, besides these ones. Most of them are based on the same techniques: asking you as many questions as they can and making vague, neutral predictions that match everyone.
The safest thing you can do to keep the scams away is to never approach psychics when you are at your lowest and most vulnerable. That’s what friends, family and therapists are for.
