the curse of psychic zoe

Here's an article in GQ about a scammer psychic in NYC. I searched for Psychic Zoe and Bob Nygaard and came up blank, so thought I would share.

When a Psychic Reading Costs You $740,000

Quote:

How much would you pay to protect your family from forces seemingly beyond your control? Is any price too high? Inside the strange, predatory, and lucrative world of psychics who have successfully scammed customers out of their life savings, and the private investigator who's trying to put a stop to it.... In February 2013, on a visit to New York, Ruth spent an afternoon walking the streets, thinking about her divorce. She’d had a good life, once. A healthy, happy family. Beautiful children. But the past few years had been soul-crushing, and the divorce had descended into a no-holds-barred courtroom fight that had broken her family apart and made her feel hopeless and alone. As the sky darkened, the cold air sank through Ruth’s clothes and crept across her skin. She decided to head back to her midtown hotel. When she got closer, she noticed a sign for $5 psychic readings at a storefront nearby. She hesitated. Maybe this would give her the guidance she’d been craving for so long. And if not, what was the harm? “I didn't think $5 was much to spend for hope,” she recalled. ... By May 2016, Ruth had given Zoe a little over $740,000 in total—most of her life savings. The contract deadline had again lapsed, and Zoe had again pitched a new agreement and a new timeline, bombarding her with a flood of urgent messages. Exhausted and broke, Ruth stopped replying. She started getting ominous e-mails signed by someone named Joseph Avner, who claimed to be connected to the church. “We will have to locate one of your family members to discuss these matters asap,” one e-mail said. She started researching psychic scams online and realized that she, too, had been a victim. It was a chastening, lonely time. She talked to a counselor, but felt judged. Then, at home on her computer one night, she came across some videos of Bob Nygaard, a private investigator known for his work on cases of psychic fraud. He was describing stories that sounded exactly like hers. She picked up the phone.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2uGDXaA