Anna Marie Adams, 24, of Los Angeles took $220,000 from the woman, and also used the victim’s information to purchase a $93,000 BMW 640i, according to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say that in the spring of 2013, the victim traveled to California and met Adams, who claimed to be a real psychic. The two continued to exchange phone calls and text messages, in which Adams promised she could win the victim money, help her lose weight, and remove a spell that had been placed on her children.
When the victim and her family came forward to the police with the information, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Economics Crime Task Force together with the Los Angeles County Fugitive Unit made the arrest.
“There’s victims of fraud every day, which is why we have an Economic Crimes Unit,” Cpl. Dave Jacobs with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said in an interview with Florida Today.
Sadly this is not a new tale. Last week in Iowa a company called Nature Plus Limited was forced to pay back $7,000 to 324 victims of a mail fraud scam, which promised mostly elderly recipients of these letters “riches and life-changing miracles.”
And the mail order fraud scam taken to court last year was no different. By addressing victims by their first names and sending letters that appeared handwritten in parts, several “psychic” companies made millions by asking victims to send in only a few dollars at a time with the promise of forwarding winning lottery numbers.
Nor is the Adams’ case remotely close to the biggest psychic scam to be uncovered. One New York City psychic in the 1990s managed to fleece $17 million from a bestselling author, promising to give her a “peaceful divorce.” What the author got was a divorce settlement, instigated by the psychic, that gave her husband almost everything, and a young son who died, even after forking over millions to the psychic who promised to keep him safe.