4 Psychics Whose Baffling Scams (Almost) Worked

4

Evil Spirit Scammers Target Elderly Chinese Ladies

Imagine you're walking through New York City's Chinatown and a stranger approaches you, claiming your child will be dead in two days. After a quick glance to find the cameras and a 2003 version of Ashton Kutcher, you might actually get freaked out. Especially after another person joins the conversation and talks you and your new friend into visiting a spiritual healer to get rid of evil spirits that are about to haunt the fuck out of your loved ones. But first you just need to go home and grab some valuables. Don't ask questions -- just do it.

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"Well it's valuable to me."

3

Psychic Makes Young Women Strip to Talk to Their Dead Relatives

In 2012, a young woman told a court that a psychic named Karl Lang convinced her that he could help her communicate with her dead grandfather, but the only way it would work was if she stripped naked during the seance and performed "like a porn star," because apparently it would increase her powers to contact the spirit world.

walesonline.co.uk
"And make me a sandwich while you're at it. Mustard's the preferred condiment of the afterlife."

2

Psychic Convinces Widow to Give Her $86,000 so She Can Spiritually Cleanse It

When 75-year-old widow Joann Niskey was approached in a store by a stranger, she probably thought she was making a new friend. Maybe one who would watch The Price Is Right with her or help her keep up with her two dead husbands' gravestones. Instead, she got a psychic who claimed Niskey had the "Kennedy curse" and needed to get her money cleansed.

fox8.com
"I can also help with 'Nixon omens' and 'Taft prophecies.'"

1

Psychic Compels 'Cursed' Woman to Buy Gold Bars to Act as Her Shield

Psychic Lisa Debbie Adams of West Hollywood was accused of convincing a woman that she had been cursed, and the only way she could ward off the evil is if she bought $30,000 worth of gold bars to create a spiritual "shield." She also managed to sway her victim into believing that she would have to open all of her credit cards to buy luxury items that would ward off evil, because Satan and his spawn have no time for such glittery things.

Clemens Bilan/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
"Why do you think they're called S-Class?"

But that's not all -- Adams had first met her victim on the streets of West Hollywood, with the psychic wearing a sign advertising that she was a psychic (which should've been clear indication that she's not a goddamn psychic). The psychic's first scam involved convincing her victim that her womb was cursed and she would have to pay $96,000 to have it cleansed, reaffirming our confusion as to how people who believe such things have so much disposable cash.

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