How Romanian Fortune Tellers Used Google To Fleece Victims 140
Hentes writes "The internet has made many things easier, but unfortunately this also includes crime: it seems that nowadays not even people wanting to know their future are safe from fraud. Two fortune tellers are being investigated, after the Romanian police uncovered that they have utilized some extraordinary help in their clairvoyant acts. The pair used information collected from internet search and social networks to gain the trust of their customers, claiming that they could see their personal data through their crystal ball. In some cases, they also used high-tech surveillance techniques such as hidden cameras and phone tapping. But they didn't stop at merely spying on their victims: their most bizarre case involved a scuba diver dressed as a monster." Nice to know that internet-based fraud isn't limited to motivational speakers with real-estate seminars and other get-rich-quick flim-flam.
That's a bit narrow-minded, I think (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm an engineer and been atheist my whole life, so I don't believe in horoscopes/crystals/palm reading/etc... However, I've found that I immensely enjoy occasional tarot sessions. I don't believe any of that outside those sessions but every once in a while, it's nice to meet someone more spiritual than I am, light a few candles, smoke a bit of tobacco from a bong, engage in the whole tarot ritual (sliding fingers on the deck, etc.), have her read the cards for me and then reflect on how to interpret that all based on my history and expectations for the future.
It's almost therapeutic to completely suspend your disbelief every once in a while and get in touch with the spiritual side (I think that there is a certain mental state that every human - no matter how skeptic, etc. - can achieve if they want to... and it's pretty pleasant, really). As long as you keep it at that and don't ever start to think that you could actually make important decisions based on all that, it's pretty much the most harmless source of enjoyment that there is.
So, if people want that and what they get is that someone wiretaps their phones, installs hidden cameras to their apartment, etc... it's not okay to say "Well, what did they expect? Of course they're going to get scammed!"
Re:Romania ... (Score:1, Interesting)
And to add insult to injury they are calling themselves Rroma instead of Gypsies, because they claim that the word Gypsy is demeaning and not politically correct.
The irony is that, in the Romanian language the word Gypsy ("tigan") is purely descriptive of their ethnicity (same as words like German, French or Romanian), but in time began to have a bad connotation because of the way Gypsies behaved (all sort of cons, small time crime, corruption etc). So came a time when they decided to rebrand themselves.
According to Wikipedia, "rom" means "man" in their language, while the name Romania comes from "Rome" (a 19th century reference to the fact that the Romanian people is Latin). Gypsies from Romania were quick to capitalize on this coincidence recommending themselves as Romanians when it suited them, which became a problem for legitimate Romanian citizens traveling abroad in many Western states for purposes other than begging, stealing, coning and raping.
The big problem is that their traditional culture is very strong and they can't be educated (eduction is free and mandatory in Romania, still they refuse it) and integrated into the Romanian and European societies. I think a people is beyond hope when they cripple their own children to earn more money from begging and when they throw their their children in front of more expensive cars to blackmail the drivers. Another problem is that they multiply like rabbits - there's no concept of birth control whatsoever and the state supports the kids and the mothers with some ridiculously small subventions (but when your main source of income is stealing copper wires and railroad tracks, I suppose every bit counts).
Re:It's a foregone conclusion (Score:5, Interesting)
No fortune teller believes in their own powers any more than a stage magician does.
I actually know someone personally who does believe in her own future prediction power. How I can be sure? She makes financially obviously unsound decisions like selling her nearly-new car, etc. because of some calculations she did based on the current locations of some molten rocks in the sky. She actually has to run a special Win 3.1 program for that, because it's the only one which does the calculations she needs.
To provide customers with a skillful illusion requires the awareness of building the illusion - the fortune teller has to cold-read their customer, provide vague hints and leading questions.
Generally yes, but you can learn to do that unconsciously, to the point where you can do that successfully on yourself. You just have to really believe in it.