Ontario woman scammed out of $11,000 by Texas psychic she met on TikTok

CTV News, Toronto/August 9, 2022

By Pat Foran

An Ontario woman says she was scammed out of $11,000 after months spent working with a Texas psychic she met on TikTok following the death of her stepfather.

The 21-year-old from Toronto named Marie, who asked only to be identified by her first name, said she was seeking spiritual healing and guidance on what to do with the inheritance her stepfather left her when she connected with the psychic.

“She was like, yeah, there's so much negativity around you. I’m seeing 666, so we have to turn it into 999 and that's where she got the $9,000 from."

Marie said the psychic readings cost about $20 in the beginning, but they quickly escalated to hundreds of dollars each session and more over the next two months.

“Every time she would do a reading the price would go up. She would say I need more money to get rid of all this negativity, like I need to fix you,” said Marie.

Marie ended up sending about $11,000, in part because the psychic said she needed to remove negativity from the money and once it was removed she would send all the funds back, but she never did.

“It makes me angry because I put my trust into someone and how can I be so dumb to trust a complete stranger and give them everything that my stepdad left for me,” said Marie.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has seen an increase in psychic scams and Jessie St-Cyr with the BBB said more psychic mediums are reaching out to young people using social media platforms.

"Just be mindful there are a lot of fake psychic mediums on TikTok and Instagram as well," said St-Cyr.

The Government of Canada also has a warning on its website that states anyone seeking psychic services should be skeptical, safeguard your money and personal information, don’t respond to psychic mailings, emails or messages and look out for family members and friends.

"Definitely, if psychics are asked for money and they keep coming back and are asking for more money, that should be a huge red flag," said St-Cyr.

Marie said the psychic she sent the $11,000 to no longer responds to her messages and she wanted to share what happened to her to warn others.

“Because I know there are people like me out there that trust people very easily and they can get taken advantage of too,” said Marie.

CTV News Toronto reached out to the psychic in Texas and she said she would like to resolve the issue with Marie, but she never did.

While the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre says there have been hundreds of victims of psychic scams over the years, only about five per cent are ever reported.