The Psychic Ponzi Scheme

Sara and Danny are back to talk about a scam in the 90's that affected over a million people in the US and abroad: the Maria Duval psychic mail scam. They go through all the details of how the scam came to be and how it functioned, and just how it managed to generate over $200 million in revenue by targeting the sick and the elderly. They also get into how the scam was brought down by the US government, and what happened to the fraudsters who perpetrated the scheme. To end the episode, they put their psychic powers of prediction to the test, answering a series of questions about how the rest of the year will unfold! RESOURCES: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/07/investigates/maria-duval-psychic-scam-invs/index.html https://nypost.com/2018/08/25/how-a-psychic-bilked-250m-with-a-simple-mail-scam/ https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nyedce/2:2014cv06791/363225/51/ https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/16/news/psychic-maria-duval-chapter-four/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/30/news/psychic-maria-duval-chapter-five/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2016/03/16/news/maria-duval-psychics/index.html https://ecf.nyed.uscourts.gov/doc1/123111878951 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices