Fraudulent Magician Busted

Beware of any professional magician who claims that you are under a curse that can only be lifted if you pay them a bunch of money. Actual curses cast by effective magicians are so rare that they might as well be nonexistent, and just about anyone who believes that they are under "psychic attack" has serious psychological problems. Nevertheless, con artists are quick to take advantage of these mentally ill individuals, at least those of them with money.

'Mrs. Grace' Sees Her Future in Jail

This "psychic" admitted defrauding clients of large sums of money claiming that she needed it in order to lift "destructive curses." Here's one area in which I agree with the Randi foundation - fraudulent magicians give all of us a bad name and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. One of the things that amazes me is the sheer amount of money some of these folks make even though they're complete frauds.

Prosecutors say the fortuneteller's clients included a 57-year-old Poolesville woman who gave Uwanawich more than $160,000 in cash and property over the course of a year. Their relationship began at a shopping mall, when Uwanawich approached the woman, who was depressed, and handed her a flier promoting her psychic powers.

I mean, does this really work? Should I hang out at malls and hand people flyers advertising that I can cast real spells and then quit my day job? Unlike the phonies, I can actually make stuff happen. Or is Aleister Crowley right when he comments in De Thaumaturgia that "man is so built that he will credit false miracles, and regard true miracles as false" and I'm therefore just out of luck? It certainly is true that I don't know of any genuine magicians who make a living at it, let alone a living like this woman did before she got caught.