How to Avoid Fraudulent Psychics & Scams
And Find The Best Reader for You

By Elizabeth Morgan
© 2003 Elizabeth Morgan

Psychics, mediums, intuitives, etc. often get a bad reputation – and not entirely unfairly. It’s far too easy to find bad readers or out-right scam artists, so I want to give you some tips on how to avoid problems and get a good reading.

Let’s start with the problems first. "Gypsy" fortune tellers have long had a reputation for ripping off clients, but more professional looking or upscale "readers" can use the same tricks.

First, ALWAYS trust your instinct. If the person doesn’t feel like a good fit for you, try someone else. I wasted a lot of money when I was younger on people who sounded good, but with whom I didn’t feel comfortable. That doesn’t necessarily mean the reader is bad – though they might be. The reader might just be the wrong one for you.

Second, always make sure you’re clear on what you’re paying for and how payment works. Some readers work for a flat fee based on a period of time (like $75 an hour or $20 for 15 minutes). Others, often card readers, will answer so many questions for a certain fee no matter how long that takes. Many astrologers just charge for whatever type of reading they’re doing – natal chart analysis, comparison of two charts, a yearly update, etc. – and spend however much time is needed, though it still may fall into some rough time guidelines. 

Regardless of how the payment scale works, the fee schedule should be easily understood and posted or explained in advance. If you’re paying by credit card NEVER hand over your card information without knowing exactly what you’re going to be charged and what you will receive for that payment.

Third, make sure you understand as best you can what service the reader is offering. Most of the time this is fairly straightforward – the person is an astrologer, reads palms or cards, is clairvoyant, etc. However, it can be tricky since some legitimate, honest, professional people combine a variety of techniques in new ways. Two of my favorite intuitive counselors/healers use processes that are hard to describe briefly but work beautifully. Both of them, though, will do their best to answer any questions about how they work before a client books a session. If it appears a reader is being deliberately vague or answers your follow-up questions with more imprecise responses, think twice.

Fourth, beware anyone who claims to have all the answers/be the be-all and end-all/be able to solve all your problems. The more outrageous the claim, the more likely it’s hype. Anyone can have a bad day or have a hard time connecting now and then. I tend to find that the folks with the best accuracy tend to make modest claims or be humble.

The fifth and sixth points are related to number four. Watch out for anyone who encourages you – no matter how nicely – to be dependent on them. Good readers seek to empower you. Nor should you turn control of your life over to anyone else. Many readers will allow follow-up calls for clarification but shouldn’t urge you to consult them constantly.

Sixth, if a reader says you’ve been cursed, but they can help – for fee (though the sneaky ones will pretend it’s just a fee for materials) – leave politely but quickly. This is a classic "gypsy fortuneteller" scam but is definitely not limited to old ladies with a scarf wrapped around their head. For all that I’ve seen, 99.999 percent of the time these claims are bogus. Do you really think you’d part of the 0.001 percent or less that is an exception?

Related to that are other scams that involve additional fees above the cost of the reading and questionable practices. I heard of one male "psychic" who told a female client that he had just met the man he guaranteed was her soul mate. A statement like that always sets my alarm bells off because while the pair might indeed be soul mates, free will is always a factor, which makes guarantees tricky. He then said that before they could meet she had to be energetically "prepared" and "purified" or else she and her soul mate wouldn’t bond. Is your fraud alert going off yet? It gets worse. The "ritual" not only involved a large extra fee, but her and so-called psychic getting naked and his massaging a "special" oil into her lower body. Sounds to me like this "psychic" found a way to get paid for his fetish.

There are too many variations of these scams to list but you get the idea. Some extra fees are certainly legitimate, like providing a tape to record the reading or extra transit charts to supplement an astrological reading, but use common sense.

Seventh, choosing a reader based on referrals is very helpful but not entirely foolproof. Why? Everyone has different tastes and different people connect better with certain readers. Among one group of my friends half loved a pricey astrologer and half where unimpressed. The latter group felt she didn’t explain things well and to be fair, these people knew very little about astrology. The happy clients were more experienced with astrology. So a referral is a good place to start but can’t guarantee satisfaction. I would, however, take into consideration multiple bad experiences my friends had unless there were some significant mitigating circumstances.

Now, say the reader meets all the criteria mentioned so far. You should definitely get a good reading then, right? Not always.

As I said before, some intutives will connect better with you than others. It’s virtually impossible to know how good the connection is before trying someone. This is where attending a psychic fair can be helpful because you can get a short reading for a small fee and see how you like someone. The quality of the readers at such fairs can vary however.

The next problem is how clear a channel for information a given reader is. What that means is can the reader separate their own issues from yours so that their own personal life does not affect your reading? A friend of mine in a very solid, loving marriage had a reader at a psychic fair insist that his wife was cheating on him. He knew better and thankfully ignored her. However, as he wandered the fair he overheard several of this woman’s other readings and in every case she predicted the break-up of the person’s current relationship and always because the client’s partner was supposedly cheating. What are the odds of that? Clearly this reader had her own relationship troubles and it was bleeding over to her readings.

Another reader where I live has gotten rather infamous. She seems to have a certain amount of talent because she does get repeat clients for awhile but sooner or later everyone she reads gets the same prediction – an impending, horrible death, usually by decapitation. How many people die that way? Not many. Personally I think she has either seen too many horror movies or had a past life involving decapitation that she needs to clear. Either way some therapy or such would help her and her clients. None of her doom-and-gloom prophecies have come true, but I feel bad for the people she scares with these "predictions."

The next point comes from my personal taste so your mileage may vary. J I’ve never had this problem with tarot card readers, astrologers, numerologists or others who use a tangible divination system, but when it comes to mediums, clairvoyants, etc., I tend to prefer those who start off by telling me things rather than asking questions and the more specific they are from the beginning the happier I am. Why? Because then I know I’m not getting a cold reading.

A cold reading is a technique people can use to fake being intuitive. It works especially well in group situations because they have more people to play off of. It goes like this:

Cold reader: I’m getting someone named "John." Does anyone know a John who crossed over?

(Who doesn’t? The name thrown out might not be that obviously common but the cold reader will still play the odds. It’s unlikely you’ll hear them start with a name like Mordecai or Graziella. Some will even start off broader and say they’re a "J" name.)

Multiple people raise their hands.

CR: This John is an older man like a father or an uncle.

Two people respond.

CR: This John had something wrong with his heart.

(Again, many older men have heart problems so this is just playing the odds.)

Audience member: My father died of a heart attack.

CR: OK, then he’s here for you. There’s another woman with him. Is your mother alive?

AM: Yes

CR: Then it’s not her. Did he have a sister?

AM: Yes, my Aunt Jenny died last year.

CR: Then it’s her. They want to tell you that they’re both fine and they look out for you.

You get the idea. The cold reader asks leading questions that just happen to produce results. Unfortunately, too many readings by people who have real talent sound similar. Maybe they’ve been unconsciously influenced by people who use the techniques or maybe they’re afraid of connecting too strongly. Psychics are not immune to ego issues. I have seen readers who only go in deep enough to be told that they’ve made a connection (in other words, they’re good) without getting any really useful information. Every reader likes to get validation and confirmation, but in my totally biased opinion what’s the point of a reading if you don’t get something useful?

One thing that can seem odd to clients but might be perfectly legitimate is asking the client’s question or question topic at the start of the reading. The key word here is "might." If, for instance, a medium goes through a crowd before a group session, asks lots of questions and then just happens to feed that info back during the spot readings, well, yes, that sound fishy.

However, certain types of astrology are based on the exact moment a question is asked. I’ve seen numerologists play with the numbers associated with key words in a question to help generate an answer. One reader I know asks for the client’s question to make sure she stays on topic until the client is satisfied and then in any leftover time she goes into additional information she received in the meantime.

I never used to ask for a topic or question, but I’ve changed my policy for three reasons. First, I believe that a client "shuffles" the question into the cards and the better the phrasing of the question, the better the results. For instance, many people want a general overview reading but thinking "general reading" tends to give fuzzy results. I tell clients who want a general reading to focus on "tell me what I most need to know at this time" when they shuffle. This way the most important information comes up first.

The second reason why I ask for a topic or questions is to determine what type of card spread to use. I find that different layouts – and in some cases different decks – are better suited to certain questions. Some questions call for simple spreads while others require a more detailed response. I can tailor the spread according to the client’s need to generate the best results.

The third reason is to make sure I don’t waste the client’s time by trying to answer a question that can’t be revealed. I had a client once who insisted my reading was 100 percent accurate without answering her question. I went far over time trying to help her, which annoyed the person running that psychic fair. Finally she asked if I wanted to know the question. Of course, I said yes because I couldn’t figure out how I could be on target without answering her question. Come to find out she wanted to know exactly when her sister would die! Only the Supreme Being knows the minute and hour of our death. I distrust anyone who claims to know exactly when a death will occur because I have never seen it come true. Can someone sense if someone might die? Of course. I’ve always known who among my friends and family would survive an illness no matter what the doctors said, but the exact minute, hour and date are between that person’s soul and Divinity.

This leads to the next topic I want to address – free will. I tend to focus my readings on counseling and helping a client take action rather than predictions even though I do, of course, make predictions that come true. Why don’t I focus on predictions? Because of free will. If I predict that a client will get a new job but that client becomes complacent as a result of my prediction and practically hibernates, getting the job will be harder. If my reading instead focuses on what they need to do to get a better job the person is more likely to follow through as needed rather than sabotage the process.

People can also consciously evade a predicted future. More than one psychic predicted that my husband and I would rent out or sell our home and move in with his mother. Neither of us were thrilled by that prospect even though we loved her house. We made up our minds we were going to stay in our house, which we love. We never spoke of the prediction or the decision with anyone other than ourselves. My mother-in-law asked her daughter’s family to move in, but she never asked us and later she sold that home and bought one with my sister-in-law. We consciously negated that prediction, which is something anyone can do.

So focusing on predictions is usually a waste of time. Ask instead what you need to know or need revealed on a topic. Ask for clarity and discernment so you can create your future rather than hoping for one to passively be handed to you. The former is more rewarding anyway.

I hope this helps you avoid problems and find the best reader for you.

Elizabeth Morgan