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American Morning
FTC Says Buyer Beware of Psychic Hotlines
Aired February 19, 2002 - 08:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: You probably don't have to be clairvoyant to figure out that most psychics aren't -- psychic that is. Yet the psychic hotline business is a billion -- billion with a B -- billion dollar a year operation. People all over the world paying for guidance from people who claim they have a vision.
The Federal Trade Commission has a vision for potential patrons of the psychic hotlines, particularly the most popular one, Miss Cleo, the message is buyer beware. The state of Florida is teaming with FTC officials to try to shut down her psychic hotline. The FTC claims that Miss Cleo, seen in this television commercial, and the operators of her psychic hotline are guilty of massive fraud. The Feds claim they feel that 2,000 complaints about Miss Cleo and the pitches she makes, estimates are as many as six million people may have been scammed by this alleged psychic.
And joining us now from Las Vegas, Nevada is someone who says she was victimized by Miss Cleo. We're happy to have Kimberly Boyer on AMERICAN MORNING.
Kimberly, thanks for joining us, nice to see you.
KIMBERLY BOYER, ALLEGED VICTIM: Good morning, thank you, Jack
CAFFERTY: You called the Miss Cleo's hotline twice. The first time, no problem. They advertise that the first "x" (ph) number of minutes is free, that was fine. Then you called a second time. What happened the second time?
BOYER: That is correct. The second time I called, I was disconnected upon my -- the first connection. And I got a gentleman that told me that he apologized, he was having some problems with his -- with their lines out of New York and that he was going to give me some free time. The first time I heard a tone and that let me know that I was going to be charged thereafter, and you can disconnect if you decided that you didn't want to incur that charge. I didn't -- never heard the tone. He assured me that it was OK, that he was going to give me some free time and that I had some free time built up. And so I wasn't concerned until I got a bill about a month later for $250.
CAFFERTY: $250. How long were you on the phone?
BOYER: I was on the phone for about 40 minutes. And I would never ever have continued talking to this person had I not been assured more than once...
CAFFERTY: Sure.
BOYER: ... that I was not going to be charged.
CAFFERTY: Now what happened when you tried to follow up and get a hold of someone in the customer service department or you tried to, you know, talk to them about this?
BOYER: I did try to call customer service, they did give me an 800 number. They told me, yes, they had customer service, yes, you could talk to someone that could straighten it out if you had a problem. I found that this was not true. It was an intricate maze of voicemail that all led to one final call that said to write an address in Florida. I did write that address. My letter came back as being no such address, undeliverable.
CAFFERTY: Wow!
BOYER: Yes, it got to be a bit of a maze and a nightmare, and I was very, frustrated.
CAFFERTY: It -- how did it make you feel as the farther you got into this it was beginning to dawn on you that you'd been...
BOYER: Ripped off?
CAFFERTY: ... victimized here?
BOYER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Sure.
BOYER: Well I thought at first it was a misunderstanding.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
BOYER: And then the further I went into it I realized that there was no one for me to talk to, that I had no recourse. And then I finally was contacted by some very, nasty collection people...
CAFFERTY: Wow!
BOYER: ... who actually screamed at me on the phone and hung up and didn't want to hear anything that I had to say, although I had a list of numbers of the people that I had called, who I had spoken to.
CAFFERTY: Right.
BOYER: And -- but they didn't want to hear it
CAFFERTY: They didn't want to hear that. They just wanted the money.
BOYER: All they wanted was your money. CAFFERTY: Yes. Can I -- could I ask why you called them in the first place? What was it about perhaps the TV commercial or what was the motivation for getting in touch with her to begin with?
BOYER: Well, of course I had just made a move from Atlanta, actually, back to the Las Vegas area. I was going through a time where I was having to make some job choices, and I figured a little bit of help -- and you're constantly bombarded with, you know, the advertisements. And after the first time, I didn't really get a lot of satisfaction on that call because it seemed like they were trying to keep you on the long -- on the line a little bit longer, and then I had to hang up and I disconnected the call. So -- but I had gotten contacted by them. They called me like on a Saturday morning, a voicemail saying that I had some more free time.
CAFFERTY: Right.
BOYER: I was contacted by mail saying I had more free time. So I said, well, since I have all this free time, let me give them a call.
CAFFERTY: Why not? Sure.
BOYER: That was a huge mistake.
CAFFERTY: Well, I appreciate you sharing your experience with us here on AMERICAN MORNING, and perhaps it will help someone else to avoid the kind of experience that you had. Thanks very much for joining us, and good luck to you.
BOYER: Thank you for having me.
CAFFERTY: Appreciate it.
All right, Kimberly Boyer joining us this morning from Las Vegas.
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