Noumenal Net

A comment recently posted on my Paranormal News site pointed me in the direction of this blog, where a string of comments have been left by people who have been scammed and cheated out of money by internet hucksters offering to cast spells for them, spells to reunite them with a lost love or assure them a lottery jackpot.

Its one of the oldest stories in the book. Long before the days of internet, the snake-oil salesmen and the gypsy con-artists had to travel to your town in order to take your money. Now all they need is a website and a paypal account. And when I see the sheer volume of dosh some of these people have been cheated out of, it makes me wonder if I haven’t gone into the wrong business. I guess I’m just a little too nice to be a fraudster.

How to avoid being scammed

First of all, if you believe strongly enough in magick to spend thousands of dollars on a spell, then surely you believe strongly enough to cast one yourself. I would recommend learning to do it yourself. Empower yourself so that you do not have to depend on others.

If you absolutely can’t or won’t, the perhaps the following pointers will help.

1. Get informed. Find out what real witches actually do before pouring your money into a spell-caster. Read some articles and books on witchcraft, wicca, and ceremonial magick. When considering hiring a spellcaster, what tradition are they a part of. Research that tradition and see if what you find jibes with what the caster is professing. Knowledge is your best defense against hucksters and con-artists.

2. Are they charging exhorbitant amounts and making outrageous promises? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. A real witch knows (and will discuss with you) the limits and laws of magick, a scam artist will promise you the jack-pot, the love of your life, or the moon.

3. When you make an inquiry, do you get a high-pressure sales tactic in return? You must act now! they claim, tomorrow may be too late!. Don’t buy it. If you aren’t given time to think about it clearly, then the caster isn’t being honest. So what if tomorrow is the full moon and their spell can only be done at that time. There’ll be another one next month, I promise.

4. Does the caster profess to cast harmful, negative or manipulative spells? Most real witches aren’t going to offer this sort of thing, and think about it. If these people are willing to do a nasty revenge spell on someone they don’t know who has never harmed them personally, are these the kind of people you want working for you? And for that kind of money, you may as well hire a hit-man. They’re more reliable.

5. Is the caster answering your questions with clarity, conciseness and sincerity? Or are they being very mysterious, telling you you wouldn’t understand, or demanding you “cease communication” until the spell has worked. Ask questions, and if they are not willing to answer, decline their services. A real witch will be willing to talk to you about their basic philosophies, theories and general practices. They may not give you every detail of a ritual, but they’ll be happy to acquaint you with what they’re doing.

6. Get real-space contact details (address and phone number) before you hire. Test it. Call them up. If they want your business, they’ll talk to you. Make sure you reverse-search the phone-number to verify the address as well.

7. Don’t wire any money! If you decide to pay, pay by a method that you can dispute later.

8. Hire locally. Witchcraft is very widespread these days and there’s likely to be a practicing witch, or even a coven, in your area. Even if they don’t generally offer spellcasting services for hire, speak with them about the possibility of acquiring their help. A local practitioner is more readily available, easier to communicate with, and you know their location. Its easier to get to know a local better, and they are less likely to have a bulk of clients so you’ll get individual attention. But just because they’re local doesn’t mean you should skip the above steps - keep informed!

What I see at a glance

I visited a few of the more popular sites of spellcasters. The notorious Donald Yung seems to no longer be accepting clients, perhaps he’s in the process of buying a new domain name and a new identity so he can start over again. But I did a quick once-over of a few other sites and here is what I found:

Psychic Realm: Based in London, this site contains no solid information about the spells used or the traditions followed. It offers manipulative spells, revenge spells, and curses.

Egyptian Witchcraft: Despite an enormous volume of writing on the site - all couched in pseudo new age rhetoric -actually says very little. No solid indication of tradition, vague references to egyptian magick that aren’t backed up by information, disparaging of other traditions, makes unreasonable demands of clients and openly confesses to tampering with feedback so as to avoid negativity. Offers manipulative spells.

Voodoo Grillmystic: So she practices voodoo and she’s wiccan, even though there is nothing on her site at all that would indicate voodoo. Not a loa mentioned, not a single veve. Offers manipulative spells - even professes to be able to turn a straight person gay for you or vice versa! So she’s not only going to manipulate someone into loving you, she’s going reach right in and change their genetics! Now thats really something. Update: I wrote Tori and asked her some simple questions any practitioner of voodoo should be able to answer. Despite the fact that she claims to answer all emails within 12 hours, I got no reply.

Dragon Spells: This guy can’t even spell the word removal, and I’m going to let him do magick for me? Makes some amazing claims, charges exhorbitant rates, offers black magick and manipulative spells. At least he has posted contact information.

Sister Moon: Claims to be a Wiccan but holds none of the wiccan values and practices none of the wiccan tenets. Offers manipulative spells and curses. Claims to have studied the magick of Abramelin (who has nothing to do with Wicca, by the way) but misspelled his name.

Now I’m not stating absolutely positively that the above people are frauds. Maybe they’re really just nice people who are misunderstood. Maybe they’re delusional. Maybe they’re the best fucking witches on the face of this earth and I’ve misjudged them entirely (but I doubt it), but I’m just callin’em like I see’em.

What can you do if you’re scammed?

Honestly, not much.

If you paid by paypal, file a dispute before your 45 day limit is up. It is likely the scam artist will simply close down his paypal account and open a new one, but at least try. If you paid by credit card, try to get the charge removed by your credit card company as fraudulent. Some companies are better than others concerning internet fraud - check your company’s terms and conditions.

Try a dispute resolution service, though you have to be careful with these as well or you could lose even more money. Not all dispute resolution services are created equal.

Report the scam artist to the Better Business Bureau and to as many internet fraud watchdog groups as you can. Even if you can’t recover your own lost money, please consider helping others avoid your mistakes.