How psychic scammed $30k from vulnerable businesswoman

The successful businesswoman says she was ruthlessly exploited by a psychic as we reveal the number of new scams taking advantage of vulnerable people has exploded in the last year.

When the smart but vulnerable businesswoman visited a psychic she hoped it would help her see her future.

Instead the online psychic was busy scripting his own lucrative future; a heartless swindle that resulted in her being scammed out of more than $30,000.

“Psychic curses” are one of the increasingly intricate ways scammers are ripping of Australians as scam losses reach record highs.

Australians lost an estimated $3.1b in reported scams in 2022, an 80 per cent increase on total losses recorded in 2021. Add unreported losses and experts fear the true number is much higher.

New research commissioned by Australian start-up Sell Securely examined unreported scams and found that 50 per cent of Australians have been scammed, with unreported losses totalling $5.08b, bringing the true cost of scams to over $9b.

Generic image of a psychic woman telling fortune with tarot cards.

The female businesswoman, from Victoria, is one of an increasing number of professional Australians swindled by scammers who use psychological and emotional ­manipulation to win over their trust before duping them.

She called a psychic she found online during a “really vulnerable point” in her life. After paying $100 for the online phone consultation she agreed to meet the clairvoyant in person.

As with many long-term scams, the meetings were innocuous at first. However, once the woman opened up to the psychic, the sessions took a sinister turn.

“He told me my personal situation was really bad and that I had a curse on me. He would constantly say we needed to act fast, we didn‘t have much time and my situation would get much worse, unless I acted immediately,” she said.

Eventually, he told her she would die without his help. As her appointments increased, so did the fees. The psychic created a false sense of urgency and isolated her from her friends and family.

Social media users are warning each other of a worrying new variation on the 'Hi Mum' scam, which stole $2.6 million from vulnerable Australians. Picture: Facebook

Scamming is on the risewith estimated losses over $3b last year. Picture: Facebook

“I appreciate to an outsider that this would be a red flag, but I was so drawn into the treatment that I believed him. He knew I was alone and ­vulnerable,” she said.

“He prayed for my vulnerability from the very first moment that we met. I was so trapped in his web that I failed to see what he was doing.”

By the time she realised what had happened to her, she had lost almost $30,000.

This year, clairvoyant scams have already cost Australians more than $260,000, up 219 per cent on losses last year.

Other scams that have recorded a significant increase in reported losses are jobs and employment scams, where scammers contact victims over email, letter or phone, with promises of easy high-paying jobs but demand upfront payments for materials, only to provide little or no compensation.

From January 1 to May 28 2023, job scams increased by 1236.6 per cent compared to the corresponding period in 2022.

While older Australians are more likely to get duped, an increasing number of young, tech-savvy, social media natives are becoming targets, yet many fail to report it.

The new research found that Gen X lost the most money to unreported scams (average of $1,185), followed by Millennials ($770), Gen Z ($521) and Baby Boomers ($190).

Jack McGowan was the victim of a shoe scam. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Sydney man Jack McGowan considers himself a digital native and was shocked to find out how he had been scammed when trying to sell a pair of shoes on eBay.

He put a pair of boots online and was immediately contacted by an international buyer. The buyer offered to pay more than the asking price if Jack paid for the shipping. However, when he paid the cost and sent the shoes, the buyer disappeared.

“Scammers have figured out a way to tap into something that is just believable enough that people my age will fall for it.” he said.

“It definitely takes that one time where you are going to get burned are going to be a little bit more aware of it.”

Assistant Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones has been fighting hard against scammers.

“These guys are more likely to have a psychology degree than a prison sentence. They‘re using sophisticated techniques,” he said.

He encourages victims report scams to Scamwatch with the information helping to “go after these crims’.

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