Beware the Boardwalk Psychic

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Marlene is enjoying the Atlantic City boardwalk with a friend when a young woman approaches her. The woman introduces herself as Savannah and offers to give Marlene a psychic reading. Figuring it will cost her just a few dollars, Marlene takes her up on the offer. Savannah takes Marlene back to her shop. During the reading she picks up on many of the troubles Marlene is facing in her personal life. Having gained Marlene's trust, Savannah offers her various items for sale in the shop, promising that they will solve her problems. Marlene chooses a few things within her budget to purchase and starts to leave. But Savannah's not done with her yet. She gives Marlene her phone number with an offer to continue to help her. It all seems innocent to Marlene, but this chance encounter with a boardwalk psychic will morph into a long, complex relationship that will leave her nearly broke.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This week on AARP's The Perfect Scam.
0:02.6	She says to me, you know, would you like quote-unquote reading?
0:05.6	And I said, okay, she would say you have a negativity about you.
0:09.0	We can help you get rid of the negativity.
0:11.6	I said, okay, she seemed to be honest. She had a very nice way about her.
0:15.3	It's frustrating because these people, they're getting away with the, I'm not going to say murder, but it's not right.
0:21.1	It's not right that they've done.
0:26.0	Hello and welcome back to the perfect scam.
0:28.0	I'm Julie Gets and with me today is Fraud Watch Network Ambassador Frank Abagnale.
0:33.0	How you doing today, Frank?
0:34.0	It's great to be here.
0:35.0	Thanks for having me.
0:36.0	Today we're going to discuss psychic scams.
0:38.0	The unscrupulous men and women who run these scams,
0:41.0	luring people in and their wallets by claiming to have special psychic
0:45.2	powers and promising to use those powers to help improve one's life.
0:50.6	The psychic scam is an old one, but today business is booming.
0:55.0	According to one market analysis, there are nearly 95,000 psychic businesses in the U.S.
1:00.0	Generating some $2 billion in revenue in 2018. generating some
1:04.2	two billion dollars in revenue in 2018. Frank, how do these psychic businesses continue to operate?
1:07.6	Some people really believe in psychics.
1:09.6	And so at some point, again, I would always say to people, if I went to see a psychic, no matter how much I thought they helped me,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from AARP, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of AARP and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.