Stupid people

[skepticscott]

Fortune teller's clients give her $65,000 to cleanse of demons
Police say fortune teller stole the money

By Joel Marino | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 23, 2008
Gina Marie Marks is one fortune teller who didn't lay all the cards on the table, authorities say.

The self-proclaimed medium told five Broward County women that she would rid their money of demons that brought them bad luck, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

The clients handed Marks nearly $65,000 in cash for spiritual cleansing — and never saw the money again, officials said.

"She told them she wouldn't keep a single cent, that she'd return the money when she was done," said sheriff's spokeswoman Alesia Russell. "But she never had any intention of giving that money back."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/sfl-flbfortuneteller1223sbdec23,0,79678.story

Imagine...innocently giving gobs of money to crooks just because they tell you that something terrible will happen if you don't, and then all of that money just vanishes and no one knows where all those billions of dollars went.

Oh, wait...that was Congress...

[jberryhill]

1. That's pretty cheap, though

I usually pay about double that to get rid of demons.

[moggie]

2. You've got to admire the purity of that scam

Other "mediums" (media?) take money as payment, so have to justify how much they take. But if you claim that the money itself is possessed, there's no limit to how much of it you can get from the mark. There's a kind of evil genius to it. But, yeah, the gullibility is pretty amazing.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Just shows how gullible people can be

Mind you, people's tendency to associate their money with good/bad luck has made many a casino owner rich. This woman's scam was just an extreme form!

[moggie]

4. Have you read the comments on the article?

I know, I know: saying "there are stupid comments" pretty much goes without saying for any news article on the Internet. Here are a couple.

How dumb and stupid can people be. Theives, catch them theives we here it from the people in the streets.. Gypsies and palm readers are all the same. Save your money people and read a good book called the Secret or check it out in www.youtube.com see the free vide the secret / the movie.

when has fortune tellers ever really predicted the lottery?
or predicted natural disasters!
or anything....
they are playing people,they are scam artist at best!
and if they truly do hear voices,it is not lost relatives,it is satan and his demons playing games on people!
the bible clearly says the dead are consceince of nothing at all!not aware or awake at all! hello...it says nothing about ghost or ''everybody'' going to heaven!

Ooh, so close! What this medium did was an obvious scam, unlike this entirely plausible non-scam I believe in.

[onager]

5. Wow. One of the world's most popular scams, still going strong.

Not long ago in Egypt, a female con artist was working this scam. The only difference was saying the money had been tainted by "djinns" instead of "demons." Last I heard, she had not been caught after stealing money from several people.

She was luckier than a rural Egyptian man hawking love potions. He went a scam too far and ended up with most of his village storming his apartment, like the pitchfork-and-torch-wielding denizens of an old horror movie. That had to be one of the few times in recorded history that a con man fled TO the police.

[varkam]

6. I'm taking pun damage from the first line of that article.

God, that is just horrible.

:rofl:

But really, how stupid do you have to be to fall for this? Assuming there *really* are demons in the dollar bills, it would seem that the best way to get rid of them is to exchange them for other dollar bills.