Seeing Freedom in Their Future, Psychics Reveal All: ‘It’s a Scam, Sir’

[progressoid]

Is it real? Or a bunch of baloney? It’s a question New Yorkers and visitors to the city may ask themselves when they pass any of the seemingly countless storefront fortunetellers.

Celia Mitchell, 38, was pointedly asked that exact question last year: “What is the psychic business? Is it real, or a bunch of baloney?”

She answered, “It’s a scam, sir.”

“The whole thing is a scam?”

“Yes.”



Ms. Mitchell would know. She herself was a psychic. But after making a living portraying herself as a vessel of supernatural powers, she was coming clean.

She worked out of shops on Ninth Avenue in the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan. In 2009, Ms. Mitchell told a client that a dark spirit was keeping happiness at bay. She asked the client for an $11,450 Rolex watch and a lot of candles and cash to clean the spirits. In all, the client paid her $159,205, according to a criminal complaint.

Ms. Mitchell was arrested and convicted of grand larceny and sent to prison, which is where, on March 4, 2014, she came to be questioned about her work. In the process, she joined a very specific group: convicted psychics who, seeking an early release from prison, sit for interviews before the parole board.

more...http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/nyregion/the-secret-to-the-psychic-trade-its-in-the-parole-board-transcripts.html?_r=0

[whatthehey]

1. Really? Well I'll be mogadored. I never saw that coming....

[AlbertCat]

2. Some people are so clueless... they deserved to be scammed.

But what I REALLY hate... and HATE is the right word, are those con artists that speak to the dead or think they can find out what happened to missing people. They are preying on folks ( smart or clueless) at their most vulnerable. It's heatless and despicable.

[Binkie The Clown]

3. Psychics perform a valuable service to humanity.

They insure that really stupid people are relieved of all their money so they no longer have the financial resources to inflict their stupidity on the rest of us. Think of it as culling the herd.

[Exultant Democracy]

4. Hard to argue against that logic.

[Stuckinthebush]

5. This may be controversial....

But I disagree with the verdict. If we are going to prosecute "psychics" for bilking gullible clients then go after religion. That's a scam, too. Otherwise leave the psychics alone to make money off the idiots just like we leave Creflo Dollar and Franklin Graham alone.

OR!

Arrest the "Ministers".

[onager]

6. "They had to lure the spirit over a bridge of gold in the other realm..."

Well sure. That sounds reasonable.

That's from the Delmaro case, mentioned in the article (link below). Guy paid a psychic more than $700,000 to woo a woman. He kept giving the psychic money, even after the woman died:

http://gothamist.com/2015/06/06/psychic_allegedly_costs_lovelorn_wi.php