For several months, a clairvoyance firm has been leaving urgent telephone messages on answering machines with false predictions, inviting them to call back urgently. RMC Conso investigated this scam.
“You have received a new message.” No prior ringing, and yet, on the answering machine, around thirty seconds of voice recording coming from a 01 62…
“I’m calling you a little urgently because the tarot cards have shown that there is someone close to you who is hiding something from you.”
We received around ten messages like this in the space of a month. Return of an ex-companion, passionate relationship about to begin, imminent danger… The stories invented as bait are numerous and varied.
Create urgency
Enough to arouse a feeling of urgency, panic among vulnerable and suggestible people, with the aim of pushing them to call back the number left. “It’s completely free,” promises the “secretary of your clairvoyance office” in several messages. On others, it is a premium rate number, “089…”, at 80 euro cents per minute, that we are invited to dial.
When we call back the toll-free number, the secretary on the line has no time to discuss: “I’m going to give you your psychic, but first you have to pay for the consultation, it’s 100 euros for 1 hour.” Immediately, a machine asks us for the ten digits of our bank card, its expiry date and the cryptogram.
The firm is called Stardust, and on the internet, testimonies from people who believe they have been scammed are pouring in.
“We have been denouncing the practices of this firm for years,” confirms to RMC Conso Youcef Sissaoui, president of INAD, the National Institute of Divinatory Arts.
“Clairvoyance doesn’t happen over the phone. In 95% of cases, it’s a pure scam.”
Scammed of 2,000 euros
An observation unfortunately realized too late by Sandra, who fell into the trap in 2020.
“I paid for consultations by credit card, but one day the bank called me to warn me of a debit of 500 euros. I had never authorized this… In all, I left at least 2,000 euros,” she regrets to RMC Conso.
“Obviously, it’s a joke, I believed it because I was depressed. When I wanted to stop everything, they threatened me and when I blocked their phone number, they still found a way to remember.”
Same story with Thibaut, who paid 300 euros before realizing that the predictions were false:
“At the time, I was in emotional distress and looking for a solution. They use fear and hope to create an addiction. I was under the influence. Their manipulation mechanism is to make you talk as much as possible to keep you on the phone.”
“Clairvoyance doesn’t exist”
A speech corroborated by Rose-Anne. Several years ago, to overcome financial difficulties, she started clairvoyance by telephone. At the time, convinced that she had clairvoyant gifts, she realized, over the months, that everything was lies.
“I took a test, but it was incredibly simple, you just had to have a little flair to be recruited. And then, through practice, I realized that I always used the same terms with customers, that my predictions were similar from one person to another…”
Its mission is to keep customers on the phone as long as possible:
“It wasn’t said like that, but obviously, the longer the conversation lasted, the more money we made. So we had to get people talking… Tell them stories, make predictions for them so that they come back, tell them that things were going to happen in their lives…”
Today, completely out of this environment, she states it bluntly: “There is no such thing as clairvoyance.”
Behind the Stardust firm, we find the company Even Media Interactive, based in Marseille. His name comes up in cases of premium rate number scams. In 2022, La Dépêche notably identified her in a story of a fraudulent number to contact the CPAM, in which a retiree had lost 40 euros. Contacted by RMC Conso, the company Even Media Interactive did not respond to our requests.
Never call back a “089”
To protect yourself from this type of scam, never call back a number that begins with “089”, it is a premium rate number which can cost you dearly if you let the minutes go by.
Don’t trust free offers at first glance, they always hide unsuspected costs. Never give your bank details over the phone.
Avoid clairvoyance by telephone or on social networks. Influencers who claim to have medium skills are multiplying on TikTok and Instagram and scams are numerous there.
If you believe you have been the victim of a scam, do not hesitate to file a complaint. Many people do not dare to do it out of shame or fear that it will be useless. However, consumer alerts make it possible to launch investigations and put an end to this type of practice.
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