Man gives $700,000 to psychic

mirror

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 4:51 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06.....?_r=0

Quote:

Everyone knows that when a man loves a woman, he can’t keep his mind on nothing else. He’ll spend his very last dime. Give up all his comfort, sleep out in the rain.

Quote:

But for a 32-year-old man from Brooklyn, those things actually happened, and much, much more, during his long quest to be reunited with the woman he loved. Nothing could stop him.

Quote:

He had an ally in his quest, he said, a fortuneteller who fought the evil spirits day and night from her storefront in Times Square, according to accusations that led the police to arrest her last month. The police and the man said the fortuneteller, Priscilla Kelly Delmaro, 26, had bled him dry over 20 months.

Quote:

He had lost his apartment. He had had enough and returned to New York. He sought out Mr. Nygaard, and they went to the police in May. Bank statements were given to detectives: He was out $713,975.

How do I get a job as a psychic? Can I advertise on Imamother?

zaq

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 5:33 pm

My feeling has always been "If they were such good psychics, they would know how to make money come to them and would not have to run sleazy little shops in murky little alleys in depressing parts of town. " This woman had a sweet deal going, didn't she? Psychic she was not, but a good judge of character she was. As are most so-called psychics who are no more than con artists. They're good at reading people and assessing how desperate they are, how credulous, and how prosperous.

Now if more people followed the Bible, there would be fewer such successful scams. The Bible expressly forbids consulting fortune-tellers.

MagentaYenta

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 5:40 pm

Devoirie wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/nyregion/he-went-to-the-fortuneteller-now-his-fortune-is-gone.html?_r=0

...
How do I get a job as a psychic? Can I advertise on Imamother?

Learn to pour lead and charge appropriately.

zaq

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 5:58 pm

The woman committed fraud by claiming to be able to do things and deliver results that she could not. Fraud is a crime. Smart so-called psychics cover their tails by displaying little signs in fine print stating that their services are intended as entertainment only. "The man was an idiot and should have known better" is probably what the defense attorney will say, but that doesn't let the fraudster off the hook. The defense attorney will no doubt try to prove that the money was given to his client as a series of gifts, and that the man knew or should have known that there is no such thing as a real psychic and that she had no real powers.

PinkFridge

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 7:35 pm

I was going to do some immediate reaction about "Psychic sees man who gives big bucks to psychic finding new, much better psychic" or something like that, but I feel too bad for him to make fun of it, now that I opened the thread.

seeker

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 9:59 pm

Look, I get that she's a horrible lying fraud but there's a reason why I'm not out $700,000. It doesn't seem like he was threatened or blackmailed into it, he wanted something that she impossibly said she could provide, and accepted an absolutely unprovable story of how she was going about it (buying a bridge in a different dimension? You want to prove that she was lying about that? If you believed in the different dimension in the first place to pay for that, you can't suddenly ask for proof that it exists after the fact. The whole thing is ridiculous.)

I know someone else who kept pursuing someone they claimed was their mystical soulmate. No idea if a psychic told them so or what. Anyway the person called the police on them for harassment. This is the kind of thing that happens to people who don't understand "no."

gp2.0

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 11:20 pm

Why aren't all "psychics" illegal? Aren't they all con artists?

The article says that the psychic promised to return the money once she was done (or, like with the 40,000 ring, told him he was buying it for himself to use one day when he proposed) so maybe that is why they have a case.

Possibly he also has a case because she conned him into giving her money for services she did not provide - for example she asked him for 28,000 because she had rent due and couldn't perform psychic services for other people because she was so busy with him - that may have counted as some form of extortion of fraud or whatever, because she didn't perform a service in exchange for that money?

So bizarre. I always wondered who steps foot into these places. This guy needs professional help.

(P.S. Real psychics just win the lottery a few times, stay under the radar, settle down somewhere comfortably, and use the extra money for charity. See here: http://www.dallasnews.com/news.....2.ece )

zaq

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 11:34 pm

gp2.0 wrote:

Why aren't all "psychics" illegal? Aren't they all con artists?

As long as they post a sign stating that their services are intended only as entertainment, they're ok.

MagentaYenta

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 11:37 pm

zaq wrote:

As long as they post a sign stating that their services are intended only as entertainment, they're ok.

And on the internet you pay your money and you take your chances.

The only psychic in my town was busted for being the front of a South American heroin ring. I think the DEA is just keeping the shop open all these years purely for intel.

mirror

Sun, Jun 14 2015, 11:54 pm

gp2.0 wrote:

(P.S. Real psychics just win the lottery a few times, stay under the radar, settle down somewhere comfortably, and use the extra money for charity. See here: http://www.dallasnews.com/news.....2.ece )

This lady won the lottery all four times with scratch-off tickets. So she can't be a psychic, can she?

relish

Wed, Jun 24 2015, 8:53 pm

Devoirie wrote:

How do I get a job as a psychic? Can I advertise on Imamother?

From the different threads I have been reading, I see you are really trying this out. Do you have any clients yet? LOL

mirror

Wed, Jun 24 2015, 9:28 pm

relish wrote:

From the different threads I have been reading, I see you are really trying this out. Do you have any clients yet? LOL

No. Do you think I should offer a discount?

Special Discount:

Mention "Imamother" and I won't make you cough up all your savings to get rid of the ayin hora. Teary Eyed

MagentaYenta

Wed, Jun 24 2015, 9:58 pm

Devoirie wrote:

No. Do you think I should offer a discount?

Special Discount:

Mention "Imamother" and I won't make you cough up all your savings to get rid of the ayin hora. Teary Eyed

I think you need to do some advertising. I'd recco a huge banner ad on this site and billboards strategically place up and down Rt. 9.

imasinger

Wed, Jun 24 2015, 10:11 pm

This is an old song. There have been numerous stories on it.

Take a person who is vulnerable. Find some small way to earn their trust. Ask for a small amount to help further their goals.

Once we pay for something, our loss aversion mechanism gets triggered, and we would rather pay more than risk losing money plus psychological goal.

Gradually, up the ante, and the chances of reaching stated goal.

Like phishing, it works often enough to set up shop.

And I don't think that declaring it illegal would change much. These are people who don't mind ignoring a law or two.

imasoftov

Thu, Jun 25 2015, 9:09 am

Devoirie wrote:

No. Do you think I should offer a discount?

Special Discount:

Mention "Imamother" and I won't make you cough up all your savings to get rid of the ayin hora. Teary Eyed

You can advertise that the lead you melt came right out a former server that hosted the site.

gp2.0

Thu, Jun 25 2015, 12:46 pm

Devoirie wrote:

This lady won the lottery all four times with scratch-off tickets. So she can't be a psychic, can she?

Why not? She could have gotten a psychic "feeling" to buy the ticket at that time and place.

(The cynical part of me is more inclined to believe that she won by cheating the system somehow.)

Either way, winning the lottery four times is more than coincidence. What were the chances? I don't remember. One in septillion?

MagentaYenta

Thu, Jun 25 2015, 3:09 pm

imasoftov wrote:

You can advertise that the lead you melt came right out a former server that hosted the site.

She better get her hustle on apparently a well known lead pourer has got her road show doing appearances in Bklyn. The competition is getting closer.