UPDATE:: ‘Just outrageous:’ Maryland psychic cons $341,000 from five clients
Marks also employed up-to-date techniques. Phone
“spoofing” enabled her to make calls that appeared to be coming from a
different phone number than the one she was using. Using that ruse,
prosecutors said, Marks was able to tell a client her ex-boyfriend would
call at a precise time — warning the client she was not to answer it —
and the client would indeed see the ex’s phone number pop up on her
phone screen at the exact predicted time.
“It
just seems like that’s the worst of the worst, when you prey on people
when they were down,” Circuit Judge John Maloney told Marks at the
conclusion of the case on Friday, when he sentenced her to six years in
prison. “That is just outrageous.”
Nationwide,
consulting with fortune tellers and psychics is fairly common. Nearly 1
in 7 Americans say they have done so, according to a 2009 study by the
Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.
UPDATE:: Maryland 'Psychic' Convicted of Scamming Clients Out of $340K
A Maryland woman who said she was a psychic and scammed customers out of $340,000 to cure them of "curses" pleaded guilty Friday to multiple counts of felony theft.
Gina Marie Marks, who identified herself as Natalie Miller in her meetings with clients, stole from five people who sought her help over the course of more than two years.
Marks said Friday that she would return all of the payments she received. She walked out of court in Montgomery County with her husband, who wrapped a coat over her head.
She was adamant that her services are legitimate and she really is a psychic.
The world of psychic fraud gets a bit twisted as alias use is prominent. I believe Marks has been then subject of a few postings here on H&C as well as FB.
Marks, a twice-convicted swindler and author of the book "Miami
Psychic," was minutes from boarding a flight to Barcelona on Thursday at
Miami International Airport when two Miami-Dade police officers
introduced themselves and took her aside
"They informed her she had a warrant for her
arrest and, at that moment, it was like the end of the world. It was
total shock on her face," private investigator Bob Nygaard said.
Marks, a self-described gypsy priestess, was
wanted in Maryland on a grand theft warrant, alleging she'd ripped off
$82,000 from a woman who believed she had psychic power.
It was the victim's private investigator,
Nygaard, who tracked Marks down at the airport and arranged for police
to make the arrest.
So-called psychic arrested at Miami International Airport on...
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