How To Tell If a Psychic is Fake or Real
Updated: April 3, 2023
Having a good reading with a psychic can ease anxieties, clarify questions you may have, and even help you make decisions. Because of the delicate emotional nature of psychic readings, however, those who seek this type of guidance are often vulnerable to scams and frauds that feed off of the need for help and reassurance to essentially steal money from hopeful clients.
Being able to recognize the signs that your psychic is a fake can protect you from the emotional and financial devastation these frauds can cause. We get asked the question all the time: “Are Psychics Real?”. In this guide, we’ll go through the 10 biggest signs of a fake reader.
1. Unsolicited Advice
It is easy to sense a scam when you are directly asked for money, but it is much more difficult to identify a psychic scam when you are specifically not asked for money. A common scam of fraudulent psychics is to approach people they see as gullible or vulnerable in public places and offer advice.
They often seem to be coming from a place of emotional warmth or concern, even using the tactic of telling you that they sense that you are dealing with emotional pain or a challenge in life, but that they want you to know that you are going to get through it and life will work itself out.
An approach like this takes you off guard because you feel as though the person really cares about you and would do nothing to hurt you. Your emotions then take down your walls and you are open to being convinced to pay high fees for further illumination.
2. Asking For Personal or Financial Information
You should never be asked to provide private or sensitive information to your psychic. Some fake psychics take the stance that knowing this personal information will help them to connect more strongly to you, therefore making them more able to intuit things about you. This is not true.
Psychics intuit based on your energy and a connection that they feel to you, not to financial or government information. If a reader asks for this information, immediately stop the session and leave.
3. Asking For Money To Remove A Curse
One of the most common tactics of unethical psychics is to announce that you have been cursed or are carrying around a dark entity. This is blamed for all of the problems you are experiencing in life, or you are told that if you aren’t “healed” of this darkness you are going to suffer serious consequences.
The con-artist then tells you that she can remove the curse or the dark attachment, but demands a high fee for the service. Often the person will tell you that you have to return a week or so later to make sure the entity is completely removed, resulting in another high charge when she has to perform yet another removal ritual.
If a psychic tells you that you are cursed and that you will have to pay a large amount of money to get healed, you are dealing with a fraud and should get away as quickly as possible.
4. Asking Too Many Leading Questions
A strong indication of the authenticity of a psychic medium is the types of questions that she asks you. You can expect any reading to involve some questions, but they should not delve deeply or seem to be fishing for details. Rather, these questions should be answerable with a “yes” or “no”, or a very simple, basic answer that doesn’t reveal any further information about you.
5. Changing Contact Information Regularly
Though most people who are scammed by a fake psychic will never report the fraud to the authorities, some will be brave enough to step forward. Once it has been made known that she is fraudulent, the fraud often just moves on to another location and changes her phone number.
Pay close attention to your psychic’s contact information and be wary if you notice that it has changed, especially if you are able to contact her at one number and then it is suddenly out of service.
6. Lack of References and Reviews
All working professionals are expected to have references that can prove that someone has the skills they claim to have. Fake clairvoyants do not have references and tend to keep a low profile. If they operate online, fake mediums will not post photos of themselves and risk exposing themselves as frauds.
Others go a step further and set up a website with links to money payment options. If it is a legitimate website, the psychic will go out of their way to ensure you know what services are being offered and the cost of those services.
As with any business, the website owner should have registered their identification details and provide payment encryption. If the company does not explain what you are paying for and does not set up mechanisms to allow you to conduct transactions safely, then you are probably being scammed.
7. Asking For Large Sum of Money
This should be a dead giveaway that you are being scammed. If a clairvoyant asks you for a large sum of money in order to protect you or to bring your ex back to you using spells, you should definitely get up and leave. These one-time payments are usually a way of conning you out of a lot of money with the guarantee that you will not find that psychic again.
These scam artists ask for a lot of money and scare you into paying quickly in order to keep yourself ‘safe’ from evils you were not aware of until you walked in for a session. Fraud psychics will also attach dollar value to small items such as candles that ‘keep you safe’ when lit. Listen out for the money request and analyze whether it makes sense.
8. Fear Mongering
Real psychics give readings in a calm manner and give the necessary advice without sensationalizing your situation. Fake mediums, however, resort to fear and scare tactics as a way to force you to part with your money in order for the reader to ‘protect you’ using very powerful spells. Look out for sensationalist statements about your problems and about their psychic ability. This will tip you off that you are being scammed.
9. Predictions That Are Too Good To Be True
You’ve heard that, “When a deal is too good, think twice”. You should apply the same principle when you visit a psychic. If a psychic makes it out that you are going to achieve outrageous results, they are probably just playing to your desires. Everyone wants to believe that their future holds great things in store and thus a fake psychic will seize upon this desire and deceive you.
Another thing to note is that life is full of ups and downs and even if your future holds great things, it will be mixed with bad things as well. Listen to whether the psychic strikes a balance between a great future and a realistic future.
10. Cold Reading
You need to be aware that fake psychics know exactly what to say to you to get your attention and make you spend money. Fake psychics have scripts which they use to unearth information about you and to tell you what you want to hear. They only use general terms which can be applied to anyone and still sound specific enough that you think the psychic really knows you.
You need to stay alert to notice when generalizations are being used to describe you and your life. If you do it well, you will realize that the fake psychic is reading from a script and knows nothing about you.