While the fortune teller entertains him, he is robbed from behind. "The Fortune Teller" by Simon Vouet.

Fortune telling fraud, also called the bujo or egg curse scam, is a type of confidence trick, based on a claim of secret or occult information. The basic feature of the scam involves diagnosing the victim (the "mark") with some sort of secret problem that only the grifter can detect or diagnose, and then charging the mark for ineffectual treatments. The archetypical grifter working the scam is a fortune teller who announces that the mark is suffering from a curse that their magic can relieve, while threatening dire consequences if the curse is not lifted.[1][2]

Method

In this scam, a fortune teller uses cold reading to detect that a client is genuinely troubled rather than merely seeking entertainment; or is a gambler complaining of bad luck. The fortune teller informs the mark that they are the victim of a curse, but that for a fee a spell can be cast to remove the curse. In Romani, this trick is called bujo, originally meaning simply "bag", but now meaning "a swindle involving a large amount of money from a gullible fortune-telling customer."[3]

This name comes from a traditional form: the mark is told that the curse is in their money; they bring money in a bag to have the spell cast over it, and leave with a bag of worthless paper;[4] or money or property are given to the fortune teller to be destroyed as bearing the curse, and an item of lesser value is swapped and conspicuously destroyed instead.[5] In some cases the curse is "verified" by a sleight of hand trick, often involving an egg. The grifter tells the mark to bring an egg to a reading,[6] which when cracked open reveals disgusting matter or symbols of evil. This discovery confirms the curse.[7][8]

Incidents

These scams continue into the present day. A 1996 reported decision out of Hawaii described the scam as "a centuries old confidence game that victimized the elderly or those with emotional problems", describing its operation in this manner:

A desire to protect people from this scam has been one argument made to justify legislation that makes fortune telling a crime.[30] A New York State statute condemns a person who "claims or pretends" to "influence or affect evil spirits or curses" in its prohibition of fortune telling, while letting a person "who engages in the aforedescribed conduct as part of a show or exhibition solely for the purpose of entertainment or amusement" off the hook.[31] Most current judicial opinions have held that fortune telling in itself is protected speech under the First Amendment,[32] though some judges have noted that "such devices are routinely, if not uniformly used to bilk or fleece gullible patrons."[33]

High tech variants

In the Datalink Computer Services incident, a mark was fleeced of several million dollars by a firm that claimed that his computer was infected with viruses, and that the infection indicated an elaborate conspiracy against him on the Internet, involving the Central Intelligence Agency and Opus Dei. The victim was charged for elaborate and unnecessary computer security services, including the claim that a member of the Indian military had been sent to Honduras to investigate the source of the virus.[34][35][36] The alleged scam lasted from August 2004 through October 2010 and is estimated to have cost the victim between 6 and US$20 million.[34][37] The victim later stated that he had been defrauded by "grifters of the highest order".[38]

See Telemarketing fraud for information about a common scam in which fraud artists install malware on victims' computers.

The US television series Shut Eye features a number of fictional examples of fortune telling fraud in the first six minutes of the first episode (S01E01, Death). The egg curse scam is shown being perpetrated by a fraudulent fortune teller. At the end of the ritual, as the client's money is supposedly being burned, the client strikes the fortune teller from her chair. The client searches the fortune teller's garments and finds the client's original egg and money. He then warns the fortune teller: “You don’t work bujo. Ever. Bujo is ours.” Later in the episode, it is revealed that the client represents Romani fortune tellers.[39]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Illinois State Police, Common Citizen Scams Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, accessed Nov. 17, 2010
  2. ↑ People v. Bertsche, 265 Ill. 272, 106 N.E. 823 (Ill. 1914)
  3. ↑ Anne Sutherland, in Gypsies, Tinkers, and Other Travellers (Academic Press, 1975)
  4. ↑ See, e.g., Marks v. State, 144 Tex.Crim. 509, 164 S.W.2d 690 (Tex.Crim.App. 1942)
  5. ↑ W. W. Zellner, William M. Kephart, Extraordinary groups: an examination of unconventional lifestyles (Macmillan, 2000; ISBN 1-57259-953-7), pp. 121–122
  6. ↑ Sylvia Browne, Lindsay Harrison, The Truth About Psychics: What's Real, What's Not, and How to Tell the Difference (Simon and Schuster, 2009; ISBN 1-4391-4972-0), pp. 230-321
  7. ↑ Illinois State Police, above
  8. ↑ Skip Hollandsworth, "The Curse of Romeo and Juliet", Texas Monthly, June 1997[link removed]
  9. ↑ State v. Merino, 81 Hawai'i 198, 915 P.2d 672, 681 (Hawai'i 1996)
  10. ↑ M. Anderson, "Woodway woman sentenced to 21/2 years prison in psychic scam", Waco Tribune-Herald, Dec 5, 2001
  11. ↑ David Rosenzweig, "'Psychics' Bilked and Badgered Clients, Indictment Says" Los Angeles Times, Mar. 30, 2002
  12. ↑ "Women accused of satanic ritual scam", Connecticut Post, August 20, 2006
  13. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Psychic said stealing jewelry would remove curse, sheriff says", Oct. 7, 2011
  14. ↑ Long, Colleen (5 July 2013). "'Evil spirit' scam plagues Asian immigrants in NYC". Yahoo! News / AP. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  15. ↑ Kim, Susamma (28 August 2013). "Trial Begins for Fla. Fortune Teller Accused of $25 Million Fraud". Yahoo. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  16. ↑ Marchant, Rob (8 December 2018). "'Greenwich psychic' sues P.I. after grand larceny arrest". Greenwich Time. Archived from the original on 8 December 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  17. ↑ Wilson, Michael (5 August 2017). "Psychic Saw a New Home in Her Future, Before Crossing Paths With Police". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  18. ↑ Uliano, Dick (3 October 2015). "Police: Psychic cheats local woman of $77,000, fails to foresee arrest". wtop.com. Archived from the original on 25 July 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  19. ↑ Powell, Robert Andrew (18 February 2014). "The Psychic, The Novelist, and the $17 Million Scam". Reader's Digest. Archived from the original on 25 February 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  20. ↑ "The Psychic Didn't See Him Coming". TV Guide. Archived from the original on 11 August 2018. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  21. ↑ "Pink Collar Crimes – The Tip Of The Iceberg". MSN.com. MSN. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  22. ↑ Palmer, Rob (17 February 2020). "A Psychic Fraud Investigator Weighs In On The Goop Lab". skepticalinquirer.org. CFI. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  23. ↑ "Japan lawyers accuse Unification Church of entrapping many families following Abe killing", Japan Times, 30 July 2022, retrieved 2 August 2022
  24. ↑ "旧統一教会の元信者の衝撃告白 私が見た「山上容疑者」と母親の「法外な献金」", Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese), 16 July 2022, retrieved 2 August 2022
  25. ↑ "EDITORIAL: Politicians' ties to Unification Church should be made public". Asahi Shimbun. 22 July 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  26. ↑ "紀藤弁護士、旧統一教会への献金に日韓格差指摘 戦前の「罪」理由に". daily.co.jp (in Japanese). 15 July 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  27. ↑ "Shake-up fails to lift support for Japan's cabinet amid questions over church -surveys", Reuters, 12 August 2022, retrieved 12 August 2022
  28. ↑ "Japan enacts law to help victims of religious donations", Kyodo News, 10 December 2022, retrieved 3 February 2023
  29. ↑ 法人等による寄附の不当な勧誘の防止等に関する法律案（概要） (PDF) (in Japanese). Consumer Affairs Agency. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
  30. ↑ Spiritual Psychic Science Church v. City of Azusa (1985) 39 Cal.3d 501 , 217 Cal.Rptr. 225; 703 P.2d 1119
  31. ↑ Laws of New York, 165.35
  32. ↑ Spiritual Psychic Science Church, 39 Cal.3d at 513–515
  33. ↑ Spiritual Psychic Science Church, 39 Cal.3d at 521 (Justice Lucas, dissenting); see also In re Bartha (1976) 63 Cal.App.3d 584, 591; 134 Cal.Rptr. 39
  34. 1 2 "Heir to schlumberger OILfield services fortune fleeced of at least six million dollars". Press Release. Westchester County District Attorney. 8 November 2010. Archived from the original on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  35. ↑ El-Ghobashy, Tamer (9 November 2010). "Virus Leads to $20 Million Scam WSJ.com". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  36. ↑ Fernandez, Manny (9 November 2010). "Man Held in Defrauding Roger Davidson, Musician". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  37. ↑ Zetter, Kim (9 November 2010). "Computer Virus Leads to $20 Million Scam Targeting Pianist Composer | Threat Level | Wired.com". Wired News. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  38. ↑ Shawn Cohen, "Oil heir Roger Davidson says he was a victim of 'grifters'" (Nov. 10, 2010), lohud.com, accessed Nov. 28, 2010.
  39. ↑ "Shut Eye". Hulu.com. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_telling_fraud