Cardi B: Scammers are impersonating Psychics and Astrologers as these soothsayers are huge on Instagram

Psychics and astrologers are huge on Instagram. Now scammers are impersonating them

Aja Daashuur, a medium and spiritual advisor based in Los Angeles, says: “Historically people who work in wellness and spirituality have been ridiculed as hustlers and scammers … We have great integrity with what we do, but we’re an easy mark.”
Late one night Stella Premo received a cryptic DM on Instagram that appeared to be from Aja Daashuur, a medium and spiritual advisor based in Los Angeles.
“Grand rising 💫💫💫,” the direct message began. “I’m drawn to you my beloved 💕💕 for your reading and guidance. You are blessed.”
Premo, who teaches yoga in Sacramento, was surprised to hear from Daashuur directly — she’d only been following her for about a week —but she wrote back that she was planning to reach out to the medium soon. She had a big project coming up and could use some divine guidance. Then she put her phone away and went to bed.
But the more Premo thought about it, the weirder the DM seemed. The next morning she took a screenshot of the exchange and sent it to Daashuur’s original account.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but do you have two accounts?” Premo wrote. “I recently received a message from another account with all your same information. … If it is you, please let me know.”
It was one of hundreds of similar messages Daashuur and others like her have heard from confused followers in recent weeks.
“This is a scam,” Daashuur wrote back. “Please report and block.”
Psychics, tarot readers, astrologers and other metaphysical practitioners say that in the past few months they’ve experienced a deluge of scammers who clone their accounts and use their likeness to solicit payments from their followers for faux readings. While some white spiritualists are getting scammed, the problem seems to be worst among Black and brown practitioners, they said.
Kirah Tabourn, an astrology educator in Los Angeles and co-founder of the Cusp Astrology app, says scammers “copy my profile, then follow a bunch of my followers and reach out to them and say, ‘My ancestors drew me to you, can I give you a reading?’”
“It’s been happening to me at least once a week since September,” said Kirah Tabourn, an astrology educator in Los Angeles and co-founder of the Cusp Astrology App. “They’ll copy my profile, then follow a bunch of my followers and reach out to them and say, ‘My ancestors drew me to you, can I give you a reading?’”
If the person says yes, the scammer will send them a PayPal, Venmo or Cash App account. Once the person has paid the money, the scammer usually blocks them on Instagram.
Spiritualists say that being scammed in this way is especially hurtful because their work has long been stigmatized as one giant fraud.
“Historically people who work in wellness and spirituality have been ridiculed as hustlers and scammers, and literally burned at the stake,” Daashuur said. “We have great integrity with what we do, but we’re an easy mark.”
Marcella Kroll an artist, tarot deck creator and reader, agreed.
“I’ve worked super hard to legitimize my work,” she said. “I do everything to be on the up and up. I pay all my taxes, I have my certificates. This doesn’t help.”
Instagram has become a powerful tool for metaphysical practitioners to market themselves and generate new clientele, but most say they don’t use the social platform to directly solicit work.
The most successful among them don’t have time: Daashuur accepts new appointments only four times a year, and they usually fill up in just 15 minutes. Tabourn has become so busy with consulting and teaching that she stopped giving individual readings. Kroll is booked one month in advance.
“True spiritualists are not going to solicit tarot readings, palm readings or any type of spell work in your direct messages,” wrote the host of @ScammerAlertPage, an Instagram page that launched in September to track imposter accounts. “If you receive a direct message from anyone asking you to book a reading with them, be on alert!”
The fake accounts can be tricky to spot at first, especially for vulnerable people who are desperate for spiritual counsel. The name on the account is usually just slightly altered — Daashuur’s handle @thespiritguidecoach becomes @thespiritguideccoach with an extra “c,” for example, or “thespriteguidecoach.” The practitioners’ avatar, bio and a few dozen of their posts are copied as well.
One thing the scammers can’t copy, however, is the language the practitioners use.
“It’s all very similar language and always has a lot of ‘hons’ or ‘loves,’” Tabour said. “I think a lot of them are British or live in places colonized by the British because they use the ‘ou’ spelling in ‘favourite’ and ‘colour.’”
Like Premo, most people who are contacted by the imposter accounts eventually realize that something is off before they hand over their money. But not all.
Sanyu Nagenda, who works under the name Sanyu Estelle as a soothsayer, tarot reader and word witch, said one of her clients sent $500 to someone impersonating her on Instagram. In return the client received a 15-minute video of a burning candle.
Nagenda was appalled.
“I don’t even have a $500 reading option on my site,” she said. “And if I did, it would certainly be more than 15 minutes.”
When another impersonator started reaching out to her followers more recently, Nagenda replaced her avatar photo with the words, “I do not solicit clients.”
“I’m particularly offended because I am a soothsayer — my business is the truth,” she said.
Kroll temporarily deactivated her account because she was so overwhelmed with people reaching out to her about imposters using her name and likeness.
“To open up my inbox and have 100-plus messages from people who are mad at me because they are afraid of getting scammed put me in a full-blown anxiety panic attack,” she said.
But shutting down her Instagram account has come with a financial cost.
Each week she does a collective tarot reading that she shares on her account for free, but she relies on the tips she receives for those readings to help her pay for necessities like groceries.
“To not have that additional support stresses my finances,” she said.
Some of the fake accounts have been removed, but metaphysical practitioners say they have not received enough support from the social media platform.
“These scammers are preying on people who are vulnerable and in need, and Instagram does nothing,” Daashuur said… More