Instagram ‘smash and grab’ impostors peddle fake psychic and tarot readings

Fake accounts in the online tarot community are called out in posts by @ScammerAlertPage on Instagram. Screengrab
(RNS) â Mat Auryn had been hearing for months from clients who said they had responded to Instagram offers for psychic readings, paid for them and received nothing. Others said they were getting preemptory readings that made no sense.Â
At first the complaints came once every couple of months, then increased to weekly, and eventually to four to five times a month, Auryn told Religion News Service.
The biggest clue that his clients were being scammed, however, is that Auryn, an author, blogger and witch who lives in Northern California, does not offer psychic readings, much less on the internet.
He is one of a number of high-profile metaphysical practitioners who is becoming increasingly frustrated with social media outlets as impersonators thrive off their accounts.
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Besides hurting his followers who look to his readings for introspection and solace, âit damages my reputation and my sales,â Auryn said.Â

Theresa Reed. Photo by Jessica Kaminski
Theresa Reed, best known online as The Tarot Lady, said that she discovers at least one new copycat account daily, predominantly on Instagram. Like Auryn, Reed doesnât give readings online.
Scammers nonetheless typically clone her account by copying its content, her bio and photo and starting a new one, altering the account name slightly: @TheTarotLady instead of @The_TarotLady, for instance.
To accumulate followers, âthe impersonators work with bot accounts,â Reed said. Then, they reach out to her own followers via messaging and offer a reading for cash. âThe messages use lingo I would never use, like âDear Beloved, I get energy from your picture â¦â or âThank you, love,ââ she said.
The scammer typically deletes the account within a few days of receiving money. It is a âsmash and grabâ setup, said Reed.
Tarot readers, witches, mediums and psychics, including some who donât offer services online, all told a similar story.
Auryn, who recently published a blog post to help clients spot âspiritual Impersonators,â said readers already have a âstigma of being frauds,â he said. âThings like this are so frustrating because they perpetuate this idea.â
Warranted or not, metaphysical services have long been connected to fraudulent activity, and many municipalities across the country still carry often antiquated legal codes on their books prohibiting fraudulent âfortune tellingâ services outright, although they are often challenged under religious freedom laws.

A woman displays tarot cards. Photo by Petr Sidorov/Unsplash/Creative Commons
There are also reportedly online commerce sites that wonât do business with readers, whose work is classified as âhigh risk.â
âThere have always been rogues in our industry, as with any industry,â said Reed. The social media scammers are just an online manifestation.
John Edward, a psychic medium and creator of the popular television show âCrossing Over,â has been plagued with online impersonators âfor years,â he said. âWe block all the time.â
To help cut down on scams, Edward took his accounts private.
âI had no choice,â he said. âIf I can protect the energy of my clients then I will. Even if itâs at the deficit of an account growing.âÂ
Other metaphysical practitioners have left social media platforms entirely. Paige Vanderbeck, host of the Fat Feminist Witch podcast, left a note on her Instagram page that reads âThe Fat Feminist Witch Podcast is no longer on Instagram. Beware of Scammers.â
Many practitioners are trying to get their social media accounts âverifiedâ â a designation that indicates that Instagram, Facebook or Twitter has identified the person behind the account to be who they say they are. The status, however, is not easily won.

Mat Auryn. Photo via Audible
âThe requirements for verification on Instagram,â Auryn said, âare not realistic for many in our community,â since it requires a certain level of visibility in mainstream media, according to experts heâs talked to. Occult practitioners âare not going to get mainstream press like those within megachurches,â he said.Â
Neither Facebook nor Instagram responded to a request for comment.
Edward, who is verified, still struggles regularly with scammers, which suggests that the designation doesnât necessarily curb scams.
Reed, though requesting multiple times to be verified by Instagram, has repeatedly appealed to Instagram to block impostors. Reporting through the app itself is the fastest route, she said, but only if the scammers havenât blocked her before she can do it. In that case, she goes through the website, reporting copyright infringement for use of her photo.
âSometimes (Instagram) removes the account,â she said. Sometimes it only removes her photo.
Her account was recently shut down during a livestream due to âsuspicious activity,â she said, for filing âtoo many reports.â
The experience is similar on the other social media platforms.
Some practitioners have blocked entire regions after discovering scammers come from a particular part of the world, though this option is not available on all platforms.
Others are not waiting for Instagram.
Tarot reader Zai Nova was recently chosen by a group of 20 readers to create and run a collective Scammer Alert Page, an Instagram account warning people of fraudulent metaphysical accounts. âI started the Scammer Alert Page in an attempt to bring awareness to the scammers in the Tarot Community,â she said.

Fake accounts in the online tarot community are called out in a post by @scammeralertpage on Instagram. Screengrab
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None of the practitioners have taken the problem off the internet and filed formal legal complaints. Healer Tess Whitehurst said she wouldnât know where to begin, as most scammers are unidentifiable and are reportedly operating from outside the country.
As with so much of online culture, social media has proved to be a double-edged sword, expanding metaphysical practitionersâ reach while challenging the legitimacy of their craft.Â
âSo many people have worked very hard to help clients and educate the public,â Reed said. âIt feels like this is undoing everything weâve worked for.â