The Psychic Reading Scam

by Layard Dunnett

   It's just another scam based on people not paying attention and actually thinking about what they are seeing and the desire to find solutions outside of themselves.
   I am NOT saying that Psychic abilities don't exist because I believe we all have abilities we haven't discovered yet. What I am saying is that many of the "so called" Psychic Readers are nothing more than scam artist.
   They are using a common (unfortunately) human trait which is, most folks want to blame their circumstances on some one or some thing outside of themselves and look to someone else for "magic" answers.
   Sports betting system scammers use a similar method... not quite a obvious as one of the Psychic Reading scams presently being touted on the internet today but still a numbers game that dwells on ignorance.
   First I will describe the nature of the current scam on Physic Readings.
   There is one that I have received emails on about once a week for the last 4 or 5 months. That tells me two things in itself. They are paying for advertising and... if they are paying for advertising continuously then they must be making money.
   Anyway, here is how it starts. The email directs you to a site where 6 cards are displayed. It then tells you to concentrate on ONE of those 6 cards. The 6 cards are K-hearts, J-clubs, K-spades, Q-diamonds, Q-spades, and the J-diamonds.

           
   They want you to believe that simply by concentrating on ONE card that some "psychic" associated with their Website will be able to read what is in your mind.
I don't know about you but before I have my coffee I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IS IN MY MIND so how is some "psychic" not even physically close (probably on another continent) to me going to do it?
   Next they tell you to clink on a link, not on a card, then a group of 5 cards are displayed with a comment about how good your concentration is (phony compliment) and a statement that they have removed the card you were concentrating on. And they DID, in fact, remove the card you were thinking about. As a matter of fact, they remove ALL 6 CARDS that were displayed in the previous frame by showing Q-clubs, K-diamonds, Q-hearts, K-clubs, and the J-hearts.    

   Notice that NONE of the cards in the previous frame are displayed. There are 4 Ks, 4 Qs, 4 Js in each deck of cards. They show you 2 of each in the first frame, and then 5 of the remaining 6 in the second frame. Your card, or cards if you tried to be sneaky and picked 2, are not in the 2nd group. Guess what... 75% of the people that look at this site don't catch on. Why? Because they don't analyze, they don't THINK, and they want an easy way out of their problems.
   Then, you can get a free reading... LOL, from them. One of those "I see great things in store for you but you need my guidance to realize them" type of readings. The basic content of it is so generic that it could apply to half the population on this planet. AHA.... the first stage of the "numbers" game that the Sports Betting System scammers use. What do I mean by that?
   Well, they just missed the mark on 50% of the folks who requested a free reading BUT, they hit the mark on the OTHER 50%. The hook is in the mouth.
   Then they send you a few more emails stating similar claims for your future and saying that time is of the essence because you don't want to miss the "Window of Time" and you must take the correct actions to realize these "good things" the ethereal has in store for you.
   Now is the easy part. Send them some money, $40 to $70, and they will do an "in-depth" reading for you that will solve all your problems, make you 20 years younger, grow your hair back, and add 3 inches to your height. You get the picture. Remember, this "reading" is coming to you from a system that played on your ignorance right from the very first contact.
   I have no doubt that they offer a subscription service as well as other services to fleece the un-suspecting public out of more money.
   Are there people with "Psychic" abilities? Can you develop them yourself?
   What about "magic" answers to you problems? Well, the answers exist but they are not "magic", they just seem that way.

   So what about the Sports Betting Systems?
   They usually are a "numbers game that simply counts on the law of averages and peoples ignorance.

   Here is how it works.
   They will advertise their system giving you a "winning" pick for free. If they send this out to 1,000,000 emails then they will pick one team in 500,000 of those emails and THE OTHER TEAM in the remaining 500,000.
   So 500,000 readers get an email with a free pick THAT WAS CORRECT. Now they have established credibility (LOL) with THOSE 500,000 readers. If a few of those return emails saying how pleased they were with the free "pick", the scammer typically "quotes" those emails as "testimonials" in their next mailing.
   They then take that list of 500,000 with the winning team selected and send them another email offering their system and including ANOTHER free "pick" for the reader to bet on.
   Guess what? They split those 500,000 into 2 groups of 250,000 with one team "picked" in one group and the other team "picked" in the other group.
   Now 250,000 readers have seen, for their own eyes, that this "system" has picked 2 winners in a row.
   Many will then buy the system at that time. More "testimonials" come in. These scammers are greedy though, so they continue their email campaign.
   They take that 250,000 and split it into 2 groups again, then repeat the process, adding more "testimonials" each time.
   Now 125,000 readers see that the "system" has picked 3 winners in a row... so more buy the system. The scammers can do one or two more mailings to that list using the same techniques described above until they have exhausted the list.
   Then they buy a new list and start over.
   So why do they do this? Because it is very profitable. If it cost them $500 for a list of know sports bettors, $100 for their emailing service, $1 or less for a print out of their "system", and electronic downloads cost next to nothing, then they have less than $700 invested in the whole scam. Now think about how many people might have bought the "system" they were touting.
   If the "system" cost $49.95 (not untypical) then the scammer made money with ONLY 15 SALES. I'll guarantee you that they made a LOT MORE THAN 15 SALES from that run. Usually in the hundreds.
   Let's see... 200 x $50 (rounded off) = $10,000 - $700 = $9,300 Profit. Just from a list of 1 million. How many "Sports Bettors" do you think are out there.
   This scam has been going on for many years, well before the internet even existed. They used Direct Mail back then and larger lists.
   After they have exhausted those lists or felt that the "system" is old, they simply create a "New System" with a different name and start all over again.

Enjoy,
Layard

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