Scam Type
Worthless Problem-solving Service Scam
Business Name Used
Spiritual Reading Scam
Date Reported
February 25, 2024
Postal Code
11377
Total Dollars Lost
$ 50000
Scam Description
Around 2018 I went into this shop in Astoria asking for a tarot card reading, after I’d had a stressful conversation with a person I was dating at the time. The conversation was so stressful that I had started having some somatic sensations, and felt “dazed”. I thought that something spiritual was happening to me, it felt as though I was almost paralyzed, I had trouble moving past the conversation I had had with my then partner, which was very unlike me. I went into this shop asking only for a tarot reading, but was then told that a “crystal ball” reading would “take more of my energy” to explain what was happening to me. The woman who waited on me calls herself “Ann”. She told me the crystal ball reading would cost over $150 dollars and said she saw a “dark cloud” over my aura and that the crystal ball was needed to get full information. I reluctantly paid the money, but I was in great distress and this was before I knew about the NYC Well mental health support hotline. I paid the money and “Ann” then told me that there was a curse on me, that she had to do “research” about who was putting the curse on me. She did the “research” and then told me that my life was in danger and my partner’s life and that I needed to pay $20,000 for 10candles for myself and the partner to remove the curse from our lives. That was only the start, she then charged me for things she said I needed to keep my aura protected, oils that she made and spiritual bath salts. She then also said I needed a “major work”. and commenced to push me to take money out of my work retirement account and Roth IRA, and then when that was exhausted she pushed me to open credit cards in order to take cash advances to continue paying for the “major spiritual work” she said was necessary. In the end I had opened 4 lines of credit. No matter how much I paid, she would come back to me saying that someone else had started working against me through another psychic, and that my spiritual work wasn’t done and needed more and more money and time to finish it. I’m ashamed to say, this scam went on for about 3 years. She was scaring me by saying that my life would get worse if I told anyone about what she was doing for me, or if I stopped the work before it could get done. A few times, I tried to break away from her, and then sadly I had panic attacks with some physical hallucinations and she told me that that was happening because I wasn’t continuing the work. I don’t think anyone should have to go through what I went through. I’m ashamed to even be writing this because many people will just say I was “foolish” to believe this woman, but when a person is in severe emotional distress and then someone who claims to be receiving information from “God”, uses tricks to scare the person, it can be difficult to break away from the constant pushing and coercion. I had no clue that someone who claimed to be a spiritual counselor could be so dastardly, I just feel a need to speak out, even if it prevents only one or two people from experiencing the anguish, loss and shame that I experienced.
