“I see a mysterious man coming into your future. He brings you money, love and happiness.” the reader says to a client so excited she can hardly sit still in her chair. “He will fall head over heels in love with you, will cherish you and sweep you off your feet.” the reader continues with a bad accent and hissing teeth. The client is bubbling over, her face a canvas of emotion, excitement, happiness and gloating. A beaming smile gives way to every thought she has.

She is the unwitting prey of a con artist. This beautifully sacred planet of ours is filled with these rogues willing to feed off a vulnerable person’s emotional treasures. They call themselves a tarot reader, when they really are a charlatan. They lay some pretty cards down in front of the person and start to babble, all the while studying every breath, expression, movement the person in front of them makes. They change the reading as the client changes. If the reader makes a statement and the client cringes, the reader changes the statement to make a more positive reaction from the client. The client hardly realizes that the so-called reader hasn’t even looked at the cards in front of them, but has been reading the client like a dime store novel the whole time.

So what can this client look for in order to not fall prey? How would this client know they were sitting across the table from a con artist? These are but a few angles to give you an idea if you are getting a reading from a real diviner with a real gift are are the unwitting victim of a greedy cad: