All psychics are pretending to be psychics.
A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
51–60 of 89 posts
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#52they should have seen that coming
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#53Is this really a swindle if your "victims" are willing participants? Every purported psychic is "pretending" even if they don't realise. My sister in law makes good money giving readings over zoom. She genuinely believes in this nonsense, as do her customers. Is there a practical difference though, whether she believes it or not?
There was an article recently about astrology apps. Are they fraud? My personal opinion is it shouldn’t be fraud if you believe it.
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
They paid for a psychic reading, and from someone who they thought was a psychic. They weren't paying for psychic powers to be real. If I buy a book on psychic readings, is it alright for them not to send it to me because psychic readings aren't real? Is it "redundant?"
It's more like you ordered a book on Amazon, but it was shipped from Wal-Mart instead. You still got your book. These people got their psychic readings. Just from a different source. Can you prove that the different source was of lower quality, for something that you can't prove quality for in the first place? It reminds me of famous artists where a lot of their work was done by assistants. Should I be able to sue a…
Ah but psychic readings are personal comissions, not mass marketable!
I ordered a cat scratcher. Cat scratchers are perfectly commodity things.. but mine wasn't. I ordered a handmade one. What I got shipped was a repurchase from Wayfair.
I sent a single picture of the box and got a full refund.
Yes, I got a cat scratcher but the handmade part was a material term of the deal.
Paying someone to do a psychic reading is not buying a paragraph of text. You are buying an action.
If you hire someone to tweet original tweets on your behalf and they just use a bot to retweet random clever sayings... they have in fact engaged in fraud!
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more like you ordered a book on Amazon, but it was shipped from Wal-Mart instead. You still got your book. These people got their psychic readings. Just from a different source. Can you prove that the different source was of lower quality, for something that you can't prove quality for in the first place? It reminds me of famous artists where a lot of their work was done by assistants. Should I be able to sue a…
Ah but psychic readings are personal comissions, not mass marketable! I ordered a cat scratcher. Cat scratchers are perfectly commodity things.. but mine wasn't. I ordered a handmade one. What I got shipped was a repurchase from Wayfair. I sent a single picture of the box and got a full refund. Yes, I got a cat scratcher but the handmade part was a material term of the deal. Paying someone to do a psychic reading is…
Nobody has the ability to give you a psychic reading because psychic readings don't exist.
I'm glad you brought up the paragraph of text because are literally buying a fictional paragraph. It can say anything and will still be a psychic reading.
I'm struggling to understand how you can equate something that isn't real and something that's tangible.
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#56The HN title is inaccurate. He didn't simply pretend to be psychic, but rather pretended to be one particular psychic, fraudulently using their name and image for profit.
Honestly when I clicked I was expecting to find something about L Ron Hubbard, but I think $200M might be a bit low.
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#57they should have seen that coming
They might have if they sought a 2nd opinion like you're supposed to with all professional services.
It's a bit silly to trust the first psychic you come across, I sure wouldn't do it.
I probably wouldn't trust the 2nd.. or th- nevermind.. you get it. If you don't, consult a psychic.
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah but psychic readings are personal comissions, not mass marketable! I ordered a cat scratcher. Cat scratchers are perfectly commodity things.. but mine wasn't. I ordered a handmade one. What I got shipped was a repurchase from Wayfair. I sent a single picture of the box and got a full refund. Yes, I got a cat scratcher but the handmade part was a material term of the deal. Paying someone to do a psychic reading is…
Nobody has the ability to give you a psychic reading because psychic readings don't exist. I'm glad you brought up the paragraph of text because are literally buying a fictional paragraph. It can say anything and will still be a psychic reading. I'm struggling to understand how you can equate something that isn't real and something that's tangible.
I pay you to produce for me a drawing of a Blorgen.
You think on this for a while and decide that instead of drawing a Blorgen, you are going to grab a random Google image and send it to me. That's fraud.
But let's say you draw the Blorgen instead. What's a Blorgen? No idea. Maybe you draw a lizard person. Maybe it's an abstract piece.
Even if you and I disagree on what a Blorgen is, the situation is no longer fraud.
If I hire you to do a psychic reading for me and you decide to get naked, walk around a bonfire 3 times and then stream of consciousness pronounce whatever is in your head.. great. You did the commission.
Even if your psychic fortune is "electric badgers like rock n roll radio", man, I have some issues but fraud ain't one.
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#59Is this really a swindle if your "victims" are willing participants? Every purported psychic is "pretending" even if they don't realise. My sister in law makes good money giving readings over zoom. She genuinely believes in this nonsense, as do her customers. Is there a practical difference though, whether she believes it or not?
In the state of PA, it's illegal to be a psychic - for just this reason
Re: A copywriter swindled victims out of $200M by pretending to be a psychic
#60A lot of these comments are jumping to victim-blaming, but the headline doesn't really describe the fraud. The article says the fraud they were prosecuted for wasn't even for the "psychic" services. The fraudster took a famous psychic's likeness and purported to be selling interactions with her, when in fact the letters were being destroyed and the responses were mass produced copy. Obviously "psychics" aren't real,…
One can read the article and read the prosecution's argument and still disagree with it. I do.
In the end you're buying something that doesn't exist. If you want to believe it exists that's fine. Complaining that you bought magic and someone sold you fake magic though? C'mon now. The fake predictions were just as real as the real ones would be.