Spiritual scammers
There are many types of scammers out there. Unfortunately the online spiritual community is not exempt from disingenuous souls. There’s already a lot of stigma surrounding the spiritual community because many do not believe us or or gifts, think WE’RE the scammers, try to make us feel abnormal or evil for having our gifts (let’s be clear nobody chose their gifts, but they should be developed, encouraged this IS a talent and real skill), etc. Scammers will always remain scammers no matter what field they’re perpetuating, but stepping away from all titles (spiritualist, healer, reader, astrologer, etc.) know that a genuine SOUL here to AID and ASSIST are well taken care of and don’t need to beg people to read for them. Even beginners and those who have decided to not read professionally know where to go when they wanna practice so you’ll find them in places like subreddit threads and other online forums where soliciting services is usually not allowed. Pay attention to that.
I honestly feel as if these types of people gravitate towards spiritual workers because we have a negative stigma already surrounding the spiritual community, our passions, gifts, and talents we share with the world. There are a lot of skeptics that already exist when it comes to healers so why not make us look even more fake?! I’ve been seeing this happen for months now to my mutuals and other spiritualists online. It sucks every time and is such an annoying ordeal to experience. As creatives and spiritualists we work hard to share our knowledge, connect with others, offer services, and build our online platforms. For some random to try to pretend they’re us and confuse potential clients making us seem untrustworthy is not okay. There are people that pretend to be readers or psychics and will contact you requesting to read for you and then once you send them your money you never get the reading or your money back & then they’ll block you. These new wave of scammers are trying to “innovate” & realized that doesn’t work anymore and are now impersonating legit spiritual healers who offer personal readings to try and trick people. Do not be fooled, many spiritualists like myself are also in school, work full time jobs, have children and families, etc going on in our lives. Think about it.. do we really have time to dm 100+ people a day begging to read for them? Exactly. We also have websites and booking pages (most of them aren’t free meaning we pay for them to run monthly) to serve this exact purpose. The online platforms that we pay for are to make it easier for our clients to access us without needing to directly contact us. I stopped doing dm readings within the first 3 months I started reading professionally because it’s not professional & very easy to lose track. Business owners: invest in a website or booking website platform at least, stop taking clients through dm. Business dms should mainly be for checking in with clients, interacting when they react to your story, or updating a client on a new service/class you’re offering.
As most of you know, recently I’ve had to deal with my very first share of a fake page being created that was impersonating my brand (Sugar Tarot) in an attempt to solicit readings and money from people. This person was reaching out to my family & friends, people I know in real life trying to ask to read for them. They had people thinking I created a new page for my business or something. That wasn’t the case at all and this is completely unacceptable. I’m thankful it was brought to my attention from multiple sources as soon as it happened. I’m not mad that this happened to me, as it was only a matter of time. This entire situation has actually made me feel like I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing at this time and I’m doing it so damn well they tryna emulate me. If you don’t have any haters or anyone tryna copy you, you really not poppin. As weird as this was to experience, it reaffirmed my purpose and has even given me new creative ideas such as writing this mini series for the public’s awareness. UPDATE: As of February 4th, 2022 this page is still active and has been active for over a week now despite multiple reports to take it down. I will keep you updated on whether it ever gets removed. I’ve spoken with my peers who have experienced the exact same thing and we agree that Instagram is honestly another culprit when it comes to this issue because they do absolutely nothing to prevent these pages from being created and still nothing after the reports are in. This would be completely different if for example I was making a backup page for my brand and created it using the same email I used to create the original Instagram, but I was not and that small detail would tell them everything they need to know. I’m still not sure who exactly is responsible for this and what Instagram is busy doing, but remixing the reel feature for the 500 millionth time, however it keeps happening and these social media platforms like Instagram do nothing to remove these pages in a timely manner. Everyone knows that page is fake, yet why is it still up? Imagine how problematic it is for those new to me, just finding me and my brand to come across that page first instead of my real account?
My intention of this long overdue post is to shed light on some of the not so ‘love and light’ features of being a spiritual business owner as well as provide clients with tips on how to spot spiritual scammers & what to do. I also want to inform my fellow spiritualists on how to protect themselves and their intellectual property against spiritual scammers and what to do when a fake page pops up.
Red Flags to Look Out For:
Wrong spelling of username or of actual websites/links
Constant typos of simple words
Them contacting you first & repeatedly insisting on reading for you
Calling you “Angel” & other pet names when you don’t know them
Overusing spiritual phrases like “Grand rising”
They’ve been “called to read for you”
Using way too many emojis
No tagged posts or highlights on Instagram
Copied bios & usernames (they may add underscores, numbers, or rearrange letters of the original @ name to replicate)
No links or websites to book (but they’re dm’ing you first to read for you)
No legit contact information (all businesses should have at least an email or phone number provided to be contacted by if not working from a physical location with an address)
No informational captions underneath posts, no hashtags
Screenshots of videos, but no actual videos or videos are low quality (because they reposted them from the original account)
All of the posts were uploaded the same day, minutes apart, or within the same hour (most fake pages are created very quickly all at once to ‘mimic’ the original account as close as possible)
Follower count is really large (they bought more followers to seem legit) & seems to fluctuate everyday
Real personal account spelled wrong
What to Do:
If you see a fake page or they contact you, the first thing you do is verify the original business/person’s page. Contact them asking if they have a second page or ask them if this is indeed a fake page. Once they confirm it is, report the page as ‘impersonating someone I know’ and block that page and all other pages they will create. You can even go a step further to show support by posting the fake page on your story or page to bring attention so others can do the same. The more reports a fake page receives, the quicker the social media platform is to take it down I notice.
Prevention/Protection:
If you are a healer, spiritualist, spiritual business owner, astrologer, psychic, witch, medium, reader, etc. here are some measures you can set in place to try to reduce this happening to you or at least the frequency.
Have a unique logo & brand colors
Try to use the same username across all platforms if you can (it will be harder to replicate anything that's NOT the one & only)
Have a platform independent from social media (ex: website, booking site, etc.) that you can upload your content freely on your own terms
Write all of your captions in a different way (repetitive posts are easier to copy)
Use your own discernment when interacting with anyone online
How to Help Sugar Tarot:
@sugartarot is my official business Instagram always has been since the very start. It’s never had any underscores, numbers & as most of you know, @noimbeautiful is my personal account which I don’t really post much on these days. All of my social medias are listed on my booking website and links can be found on my main website. Please report any other social media accounts you see that are not listed because they are not affiliated with me or my brand. Do not engage with a fake page if one contacts you, just pause & think of this article to read the steps.
In closing, note that I would NEVER contact someone directly to read for them. Friendly reminder I am a full time graduate student and I just do not have the time to search for more clients in addition to serving the lovely ones I already have. The only way to book with me is through my main website which you’re reading this on right now or my booking site.
List of Fake Pages:
This list was created on 2/4/22 & will be updated as more pages are brought to my attention.
@sugartarot__ (Instagram)
@sugartarot_ (Instagram)
@astrology_guy_ (07/04/22)
