Issue Date:  -  Wednesday, 10 August 2005

New 'psychic' scam announced

Preying on people’s fears, loneliness and desire to be loved and rich is a host of unscrupulous clairvoyants, mediums, astral advisers and just outright charlatans who are costing vulnerable people thousands.

“Whilst we accept that there is a place in today’s society for those who choose to be involved with psychic type activities for personal entertainment or recreation, there is an alarming number of shysters with questionable abilities who are only focussed on ripping people off”, Consumer Protection Commissioner Patrick Walker said.

“We hear of these sort of offers almost everyday, be it online, on TV, in magazines or via friends. The more sinister cases we are being made aware of however are personal approaches, arriving in the post or by email, promising great things and in some cases even threatening bad events if victims don’t participate”, Mr Walker said.

One Perth pensioner was ripped off by more than $40,000 after responding to a flood of offers to buy talismans, charms and other worthless trinkets. The 82 year old from Gosnells  who is in poor health was duped into believing claims about receiving protection from evil and magic from various costly ornaments.

“In the past year alone we have received a massive 1,326 psychic type scams sent to us by vigilant consumers, however our experience tells us that this is probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes down to how many are circulating in the community”, Commissioner Walker said.

WA ScamNet, which was Australia’s inaugural online intelligence gathering, profiling and information sharing system for scams, has been upgraded to provide users with an easier to understand format and simplified search processes to obtain scam alerts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Online reports can also be made to Consumer Protection officers.

“WA ScamNet is our foremost tool in identifying and combating scams as it provides information and warnings quickly, depriving criminals of WA victims so hopefully our state becomes inhospitable to them and uneconomic for them to target, Mr Walker said.

Since April 2002 WA ScamNet has received more than 30,000 scams sent in by a band of regular ‘Scam Watchers’, volunteers throughout WA communities.

“As scams invade our homes and places of work in various ways, we have established email, fax and reply paid facilities to enable consumers to join the fight against scammers and send us any suspicious material”, Mr Walker said.