♪♪ Goldberg: Tonight, a journey inside the world of psychics,
something I know a little bit about,
as I played one in the movie "Ghost."
You are fortunate today. The spirits are churning.
Nygaard: They know just how to weasel in emotionally,
take advantage of that vulnerable person.
"Can you guide me? Can you lead me? Can you help me?"
She asked me to write her a check for $27,000.
[ Distorted ] I was absolutely amazed
she would ask me for that kind of money.
Goldberg: Three women and the psychics they say preyed on them
and one tenacious detective who's out for justice.
She was messing with the wrong person.
I'm Whoopi Goldberg, and this is "The Con."
♪♪
A con artist persuades by deception.
Debra, Priti, and Ruth say their lives were devastated
by exactly that.
♪♪
I was angry and disappointed, and I needed some answers.
I needed them now.
Goldberg: In 2008, Debra Saalfield is living the dream,
following her passion for competitive ballroom dancing.
Saalfield: I was trying to become
one of the world's best amateur dancers,
and I was training with one of the finest ballroom dancers
in the country.
Goldberg: Cool.
But then, one day, things suddenly go wrong ‐‐
very, very wrong.
I was in my boyfriend's apartment in Greenwich Village,
and I received my first phone call at 9:00 AM
that I was let go from both of my jobs
because of the economy.
That meant that I would not be able to travel
to work out with my competitive instructor.
I was absolutely in shock.
I couldn't handle what was going through my mind,
thinking "I'm gonna lose my instructor.
I've lost two jobs."
And I had a severe argument with my boyfriend,
and I broke up with him.
I was going home,
and I decided to stop by and look at this psychic parlor,
because he told me not to.
Don't we all do that?
♪♪
Goldberg: For Priti Mahalanobis, it's health problems
that make her seek out a psychic.
In 2010, she's at home in Florida,
flipping through coupons, when she stumbles across this flyer.
There was this coupon that appeared in there,
and on the back, it says,
"One visit with Mrs. Starr will make you a believer.
Remove all negative energy and gain positive energy
through all areas ‐‐ life, love, finance, and health."
So I thought, "You know what? I've been to so many doctors,
and they couldn't help me, so what could it hurt to just,
you know, try it out and give her a call?
It's only $20."
Goldberg: Our third woman is looking to turn her whole life around
when she sees a sign that she takes to be...
a sign.
I remember seeing the sign outside.
It looked like an apartment,
and I saw that it said "$5 For a Psychic Reading."
Goldberg: Out of concern for her reputation,
this woman wishes to remain anonymous.
We'll call her Ruth.
I was at a very low point in my life at that time,
and I decided that, what did I have to lose?
Maybe if I just walked up the stairs
and found out something about my future
that might give me some hope,
it would be certainly worth the $5 reading.
Goldberg: Debra, Priti, and Ruth only planned to spend
a few dollars for their first readings,
but by the time it's all over,
the amount of money they lay out would shock anyone.
Well, anyone but this guy.
Nygaard: It's estimated that the psychic industry
brings in over $2 billion a year,
and that's "billion" with a "B."
♪♪
These self‐proclaimed psychics have one of the best products
in the world, and it's called false hope.
♪♪
You know, everybody wants hope.
I'm Bob Nygaard.
I was a police officer for 21 years.
I'm a private investigator.
Goldberg: And not just any private investigator.
For 10 years, Bob's made a name for himself
busting psychic frauds,
and he's even got the private eye hat
to prove he's the real deal.
The common denominator that most of my clients share
is that they're just good‐hearted people.
There's people out there willing to prey on people like that,
and that upsets me,
but that also causes me to have a lot of determination
to track these self‐proclaimed psychics down
from coast to coast and bring them to justice.
Goldberg: Bob's seen firsthand just how devastating it can be
when someone takes advantage of that vulnerability.
Early in his career, he got a call from a woman
who'd lost her kids' entire college fund to a shady psychic.
And I said, "Don't worry. You know, we'll build a case."
So she said, "Bob, you don't understand."
And I said, "No, I do,"
and she says, "No, you don't understand.
I'm on the 8th floor.
I'm standing on the ledge,
and I think I'm just gonna take that one step and end it all."
♪♪
Goldberg: Luckily, Bob was able to talk the woman off the ledge,
but for a brief moment, her life was in Bob's hands.
And it bothers me to this day.
♪♪
I find it very rewarding helping the underdog,
people that are written off,
and not only be a comfort to that person,
but also to help them financially recover.
If there's one thing that I've learned
from the 10 years that I've been investigating
these psychic fraud cases,
it's that anybody could be scammed
if at a vulnerable moment in their life.
Goldberg: And "vulnerable" is the perfect word to describe Debra,
who's just broken up with her boyfriend
and gone to a psychic parlor, desperate for answers.
"Zena," the psychic, entered the room,
and she was extremely attractive ‐‐
well‐dressed, beautiful makeup.
She did not look like a psychic to me.
♪♪
I answered her questions,
and she felt that from my aura vibe
that there was multiple problems going on at the same time.
♪♪
I was in such a state of confusion
and extremely vulnerable.
Very few people understand how easy it is
for someone to be defrauded when they're vulnerable,
who are dealing with something ‐‐ an issue
involving love or money or health,
and so they don't know where to turn,
and they think, "Hey, if I reach out to this anonymous person,
this self‐proclaimed psychic,
maybe they will give me the answer that I'm looking for."
Saalfield: The outcome of that two‐hour meeting
was that I had an attachment‐to‐money problem,
and this is why I've had all these conflicts.
She asked me to write her a check for $27,000
and that she would hold it for 24 hours,
and that would prove that I could let go of money.
Initially, I thought
that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard.
And then she went on this tirade about,
"Your money's safe with me.
You can have it back in 24 hours.
I will give you your money back.
You can trust me."
So I handed this check to her in person,
saying, "Here's the check."
Goldberg: Yeah, Debra hands over $27,000 to a complete stranger.
Saalfield: And came back the next day.
Everyone was missing.
No one answered the door. No one answered the phone.
No contact.
♪♪
Goldberg: Debra has just been conned out of $27,000 by psychic Zena,
and yet, her story is just beginning.
But let's catch up with Ruth, who's hoping
a visit to a psychic will turn her life around.
Nygaard: In April of 2016, I received a call from a woman,
and she told me that she had been defrauded by a psychic,
and it was someone that was extremely vulnerable.
This woman was one of the most vulnerable people
that I have helped in the 10 years
that I've been investigating psychic fraud cases.
♪♪
Ruth: The day that I met Zoe, I was at a very low point in my life,
and I thought I would have some answers
and perhaps make some progress
into taking some positive steps in my life.
So, I decided to walk up the stairs,
[ Knock on door ] and I knocked on the door,
and a woman answered,
and this was Zoe.
♪♪
Zoe said that she could just tell
that there was someone very important
coming to see her that day.
And she invited me in.
She was very empathetic.
I found myself confiding in her.
I had shared with her that I had gone through
a very acrimonious and difficult divorce.
My children had been very damaged
and were extremely emotionally distraught
over the breakup of my family and my marriage.
Goldberg: A broken marriage and a traumatized family.
You wouldn't think it could get any worse,
but for Ruth, it does.
I had been in a near‐fatal accident
that I had had head and spinal cord injuries
and that it had been many, many years
that I had suffered with physical pain.
I felt that too many things were going very badly astray,
and I was losing control of my life.
And on that day when I most needed a savior,
I met Zoe.
Goldberg: Zoe tells Ruth she should come back the next day
so Zoe can pray for her.
Ruth leaves feeling relieved.
Edward: People go to psychics because it's the poor man's therapy.
I started to watch different psychics,
and I said, "This is baloney. It's all acting."
♪♪
If you look at the really nasty psychics that are out there,
they are doing, kind of, profiling.
They're looking for a weak point.
Once they find that weak spot,
they will not let go of it for love or money.
♪♪
I was very curious to know what would happen the next day,
and I went back to Zoe's office.
Goldberg: Zoe has some answers,
but not exactly the ones Ruth is hoping for.
She tells Ruth that her family is suffering from
a multi‐generational curse ‐‐
a curse that, as luck would have it,
only Zoe can break.
She described that curse
as having come down my mother's line
and that I was the one uniquely gifted
with the heart and the caring to save them all.
One of the things that she needed to do
was to cover me with powerful protection,
and that protection came in the form of gold.
She had her daughter, Sarah, go into another room
and come back with a very large gold chain
and several gold coins,
and she said this would protect me
from any more evil influence in my life.
Goldberg: The price tag on all that gold bling?
A mere $18,000.
And no, it isn't covered by Ruth's health insurance.
$18,000 was a lot of money, and I thought to myself,
"Well, maybe if I purchase this, I will always have it,
and what's the harm in owning gold?
Especially if it's going to change my life."
Goldberg: Sounds reasonable ‐‐ kind of.
Except there is a catch.
Zoe says she has to keep the gold at her church,
or the magic won't work.
I thought if I had been scammed,
I would probably never hear from Zoe again.
And even though that was somewhat of a fleeting thought,
it was only momentary, because Zoe told me
that she was going to be with me for life.
Nygaard: Ruth was a person who was very devoted to her family,
and what happened was that the psychic
preyed upon Ruth's love of her family.
These are the things that these self‐proclaimed psychics
often do to emotionally extort victims,
and that's exactly what happened to Ruth.
Goldberg: Ruth thinks her troubles are behind her,
but then Zoe tells her about the witches.
Wait. The what?!
Ruth: She said that the witches who were surrounding my family
were going to destroy us,
that imminent danger was going to come down on me
unless I invested more money.
Nygaard: In their mind, the victim says,
"But what if she is telling the truth
and I don't do what she's asking me?
I'll never be able to forgive myself."
♪♪
Goldberg: Now, let's not forget about Debra,
who is instantly regretting giving $27,000
to her brand‐new psychic friend Zena.
As soon as I got home, I tried to stop the funds from the bank,
and they had already been withdrawn.
And it was just right there.
It was like, "What have you just done?
You can't be serious."
And those decisions that I made have hurt a lot of people,
especially my family, and put me through a lot.
But she was messing with the wrong person.
♪♪
I kept calling Zena and asking her to give me back my money,
and if she didn't give it back, I would go to the police.
Goldberg: Zena pays back some of the money,
but after a lot of bad checks and broken promises,
Debra is still out $17,000.
Saalfield: You may have embarrassed and humiliated me,
but I'm a fighter,
and I'm not gonna lose that kind of money.
♪♪
I went to the local police station and filed a report.
I assumed ‐‐ wrongly ‐‐
that I would be treated fairly and that justice would prevail,
and that did not happen.
♪♪
Goldberg: The officer refuses to take Debra's report
because her beef is with a psychic.
Nygaard: The average victim walks into a police station
and gets the complete runaround.
They're told that because they willingly gave their money
to the self‐proclaimed psychic
that no crime has been committed,
which ticks me off to no end,
because the very definition of a confidence scheme
is to gain the confidence and trust of a victim
in order to get them to willingly give the money over.
This is not a victimless crime.
Goldberg: If Debra's going to fight back against Zena,
she's gonna need help from someone who knows the ropes ‐‐
someone like Bob Nygaard.
Nygaard: The classic scenario when someone calls me,
I said, "I'm not any psychic, but I'll bet you went in
and you paid a nominal fee ‐‐ something under $100 ‐‐
and then the psychic told you
that she could see a darkness or a negativity ‐‐
'So, what I need to do is I need to work with
crystals and candles, but they're expensive.
You just need to give me this money temporarily,
and I'm gonna take it to my church, to the altar,
and I'm gonna pray over the money and cleanse it,
because money is the root of all evil,
and then I'm gonna give it back to you.'"
And then I just hear silence on the other end of the phone
as I'm talking to the victim.
[ Chuckles ] Complete silence.
♪♪
When Debra called me up and said that she met a woman
who went by the name of Psychic Zena,
AKA Sylvia Mitchell, right away, I said, "You know what?
This is theft ‐‐
theft by false pretenses, theft by false promise,
theft by deception."
Bob was on this case like...
[ Chuckles ] I can't describe how.
He was intensely motivated to catch this particular psychic.
Nygaard: I wrote out a statement of what occurred.
I really detailed the facts of the circumstances
under which the money was given and what she was told.
Saalfield: He was moving forward on the case,
gathering information, trying to cut through red tape
and get the law enforcement bureau to pay attention.
Nygaard: I brought it to the 6th Precinct detective squad and the NYPD,
and unlike Debra,
who just called up and couldn't get anywhere,
I'm an ex‐cop, so I go in there and say, "Hey, listen, guys,
I need you to do this, you know?
And I know it's a crime because a theft is a theft."
♪♪
Goldberg: Karma catches up with Psychic Zena,
and she's arrested for scheming to defraud
and grand larceny.
But the day of the trial brings surprises
that no one saw coming.
♪♪
Goldberg: The wheels of justice are starting to turn for Debra.
As for Ruth, she doesn't even realize yet
that she's being conned.
And then, there's Priti.
Nygaard: Priti Mahalanobis is a very intelligent woman.
I mean, she holds a master's in economics.
A lot of intelligent people are defrauded in this type of scam.
Goldberg: Priti has a good home life, a loving husband,
and is even planning to launch her own business.
But she's suffering from serious stomach problems
that doctors can't help her with.
Then she finds a coupon in the paper
for a super cheap psychic reading by a Mrs. Starr.
Mahalanobis: She was a young woman in her late 20s, early 30s.
She didn't look anything out of the ordinary.
She looked like a normal person.
I went there with a very open mind,
'cause I was just really desperate,
you know, hoping for answers
and just open to, like, "Okay, you know, can you guide me?
Can you lead me? Can you help me?"
Goldberg: I'll give you three guesses as to what happens next.
Priti says Mrs. Starr, whose real name is Peaches Stevens ‐‐
yeah, that's her name ‐‐
tells her that Priti's family has an evil curse on it.
Wait. Where have I heard that one before?
And that's the reason why it was causing all these problems ‐‐
not just for me, but for the whole family ‐‐
and that was behind my digestive issues, as well.
Goldberg: Priti says that Peaches tells her
to perform a ritual that night
which involves putting money and a list of family names
in an envelope
and then placing it under her mattress.
But that is not even the crazy part.
She also told me to take a grapefruit
and put it under the bed.
Goldberg: That's right ‐‐ a grapefruit.
I guess a peach would've been too on‐the‐nose.
Anyway...
The next day, Priti says she visits Mrs. Starr,
bringing the grapefruit with her.
Mahalanobis: She took the grapefruit,
she cut it in the shape of a cross,
and then she pried it open
to reveal the center inside the grapefruit
was a very horrific‐looking thing ‐‐
something black.
It looks like evil, basically.
It looks like something really horrible.
Her reaction to it, actually, was like,
"[Gasps] Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"
She was ‐‐ She was, like, horrified.
She goes, "That was the evil
that had made a home in your body,
and it got attracted to the money in the envelope
under your mattress,
and it got caught into the grapefruit."
I was really scared, and I couldn't believe
that that had come out of my body.
It strengthened my belief
that what she was telling me was true.
♪♪
The grapefruit trick, okay, is very well‐known to magicians.
It is not very hard
to get something into the center of a grapefruit
if you know how to do it.
Goldberg: Yeah, pretty easy, as you can see in this YouTube video
showing how to put a card into an orange ‐‐
if that's your thing.
They probably got the hairball from their cat.
People like that save stuff like that
for just the right moment.
That's just so wrong, you know? I mean...[ Chuckles ]
Goldberg: But as far as Priti knows,
all that evil has to be dealt with right away,
or Priti, her family, and their Quiznos
would be in mortal danger.
Priti says Peaches has a fix.
All she has to do is buy a golden tabernacle.
And come on ‐‐ how much could one of those possibly cost?
Because it's made out of gold, it's going to cost $19,000.
Yeah.
And so at that point, I was like, "Oh, my God."
Like, where am I gonna come up with $19,000?
Goldberg: That $19,000 quickly turns into $50,000 ‐‐
money Priti does not have.
So she gives Peaches all of her family jewelry ‐‐
$65,000 worth.
But hey, at least Priti can tell her family
that she saved them from a diabolical curse...right?
Mahalanobis: She told me that in order for her work to be effective,
it was extremely important that I not tell anybody,
that I had to keep it just between me and her.
As soon as a psychic says to you,
"You can't talk about the work with anybody,"
it's time to run in the opposite direction.
Goldberg: But Priti is not running.
In fact, she tries to come up with more money for her psychic.
♪♪
Debra is realizing that getting revenge on hers
is going to involve a trial
that will reveal to the world just how gullible she's been.
Debra Saalfield's case against Sylvia Mitchell,
it actually went to trial.
It was a very rare occurrence.
Goldberg: Usually, cases like Sylvia Mitchell's
get pled out before going to court,
but Zena decides to take her chances.
A trial, it will be.
I had no clue how important this trial was.
To me, it was just a little crime case
and it didn't have any significance in the legal world.
[ Camera shutters clicking ] But I was very wrong.
♪♪
Goldberg: Debra, the victim of a psychic scam artist,
is about to have her day in court.
Priti has shelled out over $60,000 to her psychic.
But the next twist in Ruth's psychic saga
is gonna make that look like chump change.
Ruth has already dropped $18,000
on curse‐breaking golden amulets,
but apparently, 18 grand does not buy what it used to.
Zoe told me that imminent danger was going to come down on me
unless I invested more money.
♪♪
By this time,
I was completely taken in by her prognostications,
and so I did it.
♪♪
Every time I stood in front of the teller,
I felt like I was going to faint with stress.
I felt absolutely sick with what I was doing.
I think it was $505,000 that was now invested.
But the other side of me just wanted to save my family,
and I would have done anything.
Money didn't mean anything compared to that.
Goldberg: Then, just when things are at their worst,
Ruth's life suddenly starts to get better.
Are Zoe's psychic powers legit after all?
Ruth: Things turned around for me very suddenly.
I had a breakthrough in my divorce settlement.
I saw this as a fresh start,
an opportunity that could change my life.
And then Zoe said that without powerful protection,
all of it would fall apart.
She said that this would cost $160,000.
[ Sighs ]
Goldberg: "[ Sighs ]" is right.
But Ruth pays up,
and she says she's now given Zoe a staggering grand total
of $741,000.
♪♪
Well, at least Zoe's promises are finally paying off.
That is, until they're not.
Ruth: My divorce lawyer left the practice of family law
and abandoned my case,
and life for me was worse than ever.
I was furious because I'd invested so much money
to ensure that the divorce came out right
and that my family would be made whole,
and basically, everything that she ever promised me
went up in smoke.
Goldberg: Ruth is devastated, but finally,
after all this time and money, Zoe's spell over her is broken.
Furious and ashamed, she's ready
to get some good, old‐fashioned revenge.
I took some action,
and what I did was I found Bob Nygaard.
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
When Ruth called me, I just felt
that she was in such a low place.
As far as cases go, it was one of my most challenging,
in terms of helping a victim who had hit rock bottom.
I thought I would be met with derision and eye‐rolling.
Bob never did that.
He told me the truth ‐‐
Zoe was a criminal.
♪♪
Goldberg: Priti now says her psychic, Peaches,
is demanding even more cash,
and the price for lifting her family's curse now?
Seven golden tabernacles.
Mahalanobis: Seven lifetimes ago,
I got involved in all these bad, evil things.
So for seven lifetimes, seven tabernacles.
Each one was $19,000.
[ Chuckles ] Right? So do the math.
That was like 130‐some thousand dollars
So it was just like [Sighs] gosh.
It basically bled my business account dry.
What she did tell me is that
if I told anyone about the work that she was doing
that the evil would escape, and then at that point,
there was nothing that she could do to help me.
Nygaard: Priti was just trying to help herself and help her family.
You know, it was very devastating for her.
Goldberg: Priti has started putting her payments to Peaches on plastic,
making them impossible to hide.
Mahalanobis: My husband had actually found the credit card statement,
and so he questioned me about that,
like, "What is this? What is this charge for?"
I was just getting caught deeper and deeper
in this web of lies that Peaches was having me create,
and it just felt so unnatural to me
to cover all this up.
♪♪
I couldn't sleep at night.
I was constantly anxious.
My husband, in particular,
knew that something was very, very wrong.
He just kept trying to get me to tell him, and I wouldn't tell him,
because I was so afraid of that evil coming out.
Having to lie to him was the most difficult thing.
It really tore me apart.
Goldberg: After nine months of escalating payments to Peaches,
Priti's sub shop goes under.
Mahalanobis: Once I closed the Quiznos,
I had hit rock bottom at that point.
Over the course of that nine months,
between the value of my jewelry at that time
and all the other gifts and money that I gave her,
it was close to $136,000.
And that does not include the loss of my Quiznos business.
Goldberg: Feeling terrified and alone,
Priti decides to open up to her husband, Abhijit.
Finally being able to tell him was very liberating.
And when he found out what was going on,
he was actually very relieved to finally know the truth.
That's when I realized,
you know, to the extent that I had been conned.
Goldberg: With her family behind her,
Priti's finally ready to fight back.
I was after justice. I wanted to stop her.
I didn't want anyone else to go through what I went through.
Goldberg: And a certain P.I. is about to step into the fight.
♪♪
Goldberg: After years of financial and emotional devastation
at the hands of their psychics,
Debra, Priti, and Ruth are all seeking justice.
Debra's case against the cunning clairvoyant Zena
is about to go to trial.
It was such a high‐profile case with a Manhattan psychic,
you know, ripping this woman off.
All the media in New York was all over the case.
[ Camera shutters click ]
Goldberg: Sylvia's attorney offers Debra a settlement agreement,
but Debra has other plans.
I wasn't gonna take any money.
That was not the way this was gonna work.
I would have let myself down for taking money and not testifying
and preventing others from being taken by her.
Nygaard: Debra got full restitution,
and Sylvia got sentenced to 5 to 15 years
in New York State Prison.
So that was a huge sentence at that time
for a self‐proclaimed psychic.
Goldberg: Sylvia, AKA Zena,
is going to the big house for multiple counts of fraud,
including the cons she pulled on Debra.
Saalfield: She needed to be stopped,
and the business needs to be stopped,
although it's far from being stopped.
♪♪
Goldberg: Priti finally tells her family that her psychic, Peaches,
has conned her out of $135,000,
and now she wants Peaches to pay.
My husband found Bob Nygaard, and we contacted him,
and he agreed to take on our case.
In fact, he was very compassionate
and very understanding.
♪♪
Priti came to me, and I, you know, say,
Hey, when Mrs. Starr told you this, you know,
what were you supposed to get for it?
Did she take the money and say she was gonna give it back?
Did she ever say she was gonna give the jewelry back?"
You know, I pick apart the provable lies.
Goldberg: Priti and Bob piece together all the financial transactions
between her and Peaches.
They bring their case to the state attorney.
They sit back and wait for an arrest.
And then...they wait some more.
Nygaard: The case sat there for eight months.
Here she was ‐‐ she was out $135,000‐plus,
and she was getting no movement on her case at all.
It seemed so unfair that someone could
just so openly do this to people and get away with it
and police weren't helping people.
Goldberg: Since the police are dragging their feet,
Bob is forced to resort to his secret weapon.
When I hit a roadblock and the police or the prosecutors
don't want to do their job,
then I often go to the media and expose that injustice.
[ Applause ]
Priti went on the Anderson Cooper
daytime talk show.
She excoriated, in really explicit terms,
the Orlando state attorney's office.
They have done absolutely nothing.
Nothing.
And you feel the authorities
don't take this seriously enough?
No, not at all, and in fact,
they don't respond to e‐mails or phone calls.
I even went there in person,
and they just simply don't care.
You know, the media has the power
of being a great equalizer.
When some prosecutor or some cop sees,
detective sees their name in the paper, you know,
and they're named by person for not doing their job,
you see how quick their attitude changes.
And sure enough, within less than a month,
the Orlando‐Osceola State Attorney's office
notified Priti that they would be filing charges
against Peaches Stevens.
Goldberg: Peaches, AKA Mrs. Starr, is finally arrested for fraud.
But there's one tiny, little problem ‐‐
she is willing to pay the money back
but insists on maintaining her innocence.
I want that Peaches at least admit
that yeah, she did all these things,
that she was guilty, that she actually did it.
♪♪
Ruth: You know that you've been a victim of someone
who has preyed on you and you've fallen for it.
I didn't feel like I could ever tell anyone.
Who would believe me?
♪♪
Nygaard: When Ruth called me,
I just felt that she was in such a low place.
She endured emotional extortion,
and she was financially decimated and emotionally abused
for four years and nine months by a self‐proclaimed psychic.
He helped me to understand what had happened to me
and what it was that could be done
to bring this criminal to justice.
♪♪
Nygaard: A lot of times, I will tell a victim,
"Cut off all contact with the psychic
from the moment you call me,"
'cause I don't want to leave it up to a chance
that the psychic could weasel their way back in,
emotionally, into the victim's life.
In this particular case, with Ruth,
I felt there was a great benefit to gathering more evidence.
I was a little bit nervous.
Goldberg: And you can't really blame her, because for Bob's plan to work,
Ruth is going to have to go undercover.
Ruth and I had a lot of discussion
on whether Ruth was strong enough.
You know, she had a lot of strength, and she said to me,
"Hey, Bob, if this is what's best for the case,
you know, I can do this."
Ruth: And from that moment on, I took control of my life,
and I fought back.
♪♪
Goldberg: Debra and Priti have brought their pseudo‐psychics
before the law,
but Ruth's con artist is still out there
and up to her old tricks.
Luckily, Bob has a plan to stop her,
but it will put Ruth's acting chops to the test.
When Bob and I started working together, we had to record Zoe,
and I had to pretend that I hadn't hired Bob.
♪♪
During those conversations,
you can really see the differences in demeanor
that she used when trying to defraud Ruth.
You could hear her, you know, trying to get more.
♪♪
We gathered so many phone conversations,
and we gathered a lot of evidence.
Goldberg: But Bob wants more.
He wants Zoe on video.
So he sends in an associate with a hidden camera.
Nygaard: I then sent someone in, and we got undercover footage,
you know, in the act.
♪♪
Edward: Zoe had a very aggressive style.
From the get‐go, she made it seem like
it was almost a life‐or‐death thing.
♪♪
They will exaggerate something that they see
in that person's personality.
♪♪
She wants to make sure that she has a very good living
for as long as she can keep you on the hook.
♪♪
And the main thing is the money, you know?
She'll do a special discount until tomorrow,
and then the price goes up.
♪♪
Just very manipulative.
♪♪
Goldberg: Finally, Ruth and Bob have collected
enough rock‐solid evidence against Zoe
to take it to the NYPD.
I was able to avoid the problem of having to go to a precinct
and getting the door slammed in my face, you know,
and having to fight and use the media and everything else.
Goldberg: Psychic Zoe, AKA Ann Thompson,
is arrested and charged with crimes,
including fraud, grand larceny, and forgery.
From the look on her face,
this so‐called psychic didn't see that one coming.
When she was arrested, Bob and I were just elated.
He phoned me and told me, and this was the first step
in finally getting toward the end.
♪♪
Goldberg: The case balloons to over a dozen victims,
two other psychics, and over a million dollars in damages.
Zoe pleads guilty to the charges and agrees to pay back $200,000,
but as of today, she still hasn't been sentenced
and has only paid Ruth back a fraction of her money.
♪♪
Priti is relieved that her psychic, Peaches,
has finally been arrested for fraud,
but Peaches cuts a plea deal
where she continues denying wrongdoing,
and the charges are dropped in exchange for paying Priti back.
Now, Priti isn't thrilled,
but she decides to look on the bright side.
I feel like everything we go through in life
is to help ourselves to learn and grow.
I no longer believe in curses.
Also, it teaches me to listen to your gut,
to the voice of your soul,
and not to, you know, be tricked by your mind,
that can play a lot of games and trick you.
Goldberg: But Ruth's long battle isn't over.
She's still waiting for justice.
Ruth: She took my freedom.
And she took it
in an abusive, nefarious, purposeful way.
I must be made whole.
I want all my money back, because it belongs to me.
♪♪
If a situation occurs in your life
where you're challenged by the law
and by someone who is doing wrong in every way,
you can keep going and find a way to have justice served.
Nygaard: For every one Debra or one Priti or one Ruth,
there's 50 more people that were too scared to come forward.
It takes a lot of gumption and a lot of fortitude
for someone to come forward
and admit that they're the victim of a confidence scheme.
I mean, I give them so much credit.
I admire them. I admire them for their courage.
‐‐ Captions by VITAC ‐‐
♪♪