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How Romanian Fortune Tellers Used Google To Fleece Victims

Posted by timothy on from the hey-dad-take-this-as-a-free-lesson dept.

Hentes writes "The internet has made many things easier, but unfortunately this also includes crime: it seems that nowadays not even people wanting to know their future are safe from fraud. Two fortune tellers are being investigated, after the Romanian police uncovered that they have utilized some extraordinary help in their clairvoyant acts. The pair used information collected from internet search and social networks to gain the trust of their customers, claiming that they could see their personal data through their crystal ball. In some cases, they also used high-tech surveillance techniques such as hidden cameras and phone tapping. But they didn't stop at merely spying on their victims: their most bizarre case involved a scuba diver dressed as a monster." Nice to know that internet-based fraud isn't limited to motivational speakers with real-estate seminars and other get-rich-quick flim-flam.

4 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. It's a foregone conclusion by xrayspx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "it seems that nowadays not even people wanting to know their future are safe from fraud"

    If you pay someone money and expect them to tell your future, you will never be safe from fraud. In fact, as your palm reading crystal adviser, I sense...fraud...in your future.

    --
    I like music
  2. "... a scuba diver dressed as a monster ..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And they would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for those darn meddling kids!

  3. That's a bit narrow-minded, I think by F69631 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm an engineer and been atheist my whole life, so I don't believe in horoscopes/crystals/palm reading/etc... However, I've found that I immensely enjoy occasional tarot sessions. I don't believe any of that outside those sessions but every once in a while, it's nice to meet someone more spiritual than I am, light a few candles, smoke a bit of tobacco from a bong, engage in the whole tarot ritual (sliding fingers on the deck, etc.), have her read the cards for me and then reflect on how to interpret that all based on my history and expectations for the future.

    It's almost therapeutic to completely suspend your disbelief every once in a while and get in touch with the spiritual side (I think that there is a certain mental state that every human - no matter how skeptic, etc. - can achieve if they want to... and it's pretty pleasant, really). As long as you keep it at that and don't ever start to think that you could actually make important decisions based on all that, it's pretty much the most harmless source of enjoyment that there is.

    So, if people want that and what they get is that someone wiretaps their phones, installs hidden cameras to their apartment, etc... it's not okay to say "Well, what did they expect? Of course they're going to get scammed!"

  4. Re:Suckers are born every second by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Well ... suckers are _still_ falling into the Nigerian money transfer scam, don't they?"

    Not to mention talking snakes, virgin mothers and bearded men in the sky.