Psychic and Fortune
Teller Scams
'Psychic' charged with grand theft
Woman accused of taking $30,000 with promise to rid cash and client of curse
10/08/09 - HOLLYWOOD - A self-proclaimed psychic on probation after pleading guilty to fraud charges earlier this year has been arrested again, once more accused of promising to lift a curse from a client's money.
Gina Marie Marks, 36, of Hollywood, was arrested today and charged with grand theft. Marks is accused of taking more than $30,000 from a client in 2007. She was held in the Broward main jail, with bail set at $5,000.
Bob Nygaard, a Boca Raton-based private investigator hired by Marks' client, said Marks told the client that an ex-boyfriend's new lover had placed a curse on the client. One way to lift the curse was to withdraw cash and hand it to Marks to be cleansed, Marks said, according to Nygaard.
Once cleansed, the cash was to be returned, Nygaard said. That never happened, he said.
Marks faced similar accusations earlier this year year. Five clients, all from Broward County, handed Marks a total of $65,000 to rid the money of demons, officials said.
Marks was arrested in January and convicted of fraud charges in May. She was sentenced to 18 months on probation and ordered to repay the money, said Nygaard, who represented the five clients.
Marks wasn't charged with violating her probation because the most recent alleged crime - involving a Broward client who no longer lives in Florida, Nygaard said - took place before Marks was sentenced.
Marks lives in Hollywood and operated her psychic business there and in Weston. She published a book called Miami Psychic - Confessions of a Confidante in 2006 under the name Regina Milbourne. She also has used the alias Zara Margazio, an arrest report states.
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
10/08/09 -
Gina Marks Busted Again
Posted by CareyCodd
The well-known psychic, Gina Marks, is back in the Broward County Jail this afternoon.
We wrote about Marks late last year after five Broward women claimed Marks stole $65,000 from them in a bizarre case that involved "cleansing" the money to rid the women of evil spirits and curses.
Marks eventually repaid the money and is serving 18 months on probation. SEE THE CBS4 STORY HERE
But now Marks faces a new charge of grand theft.
According to private investigator Bob Nygaard -- who built this most recent case against Marks -- a Broward woman enlisted the services of Marks in 2007. Nygaard said Marks was using the name "Psychic Zara." The woman wanted help with relationship problems and Marks promised to help.
Nygaard said Marks performed a series of rituals and said she needed to clean the woman's money to lift a curse and evil spirits that surrounded the woman and her family.
The woman paid Marks more than $30,000.
Marks' attorney Jim Lewis told me Marks is offering to pay back the cash.
Also, since this incident happened in 2007 it pre-dates the arrest from 2008. That means it will not be seen as a violation of Marks' probation.
I've been writing for a long while about the exploits about Gina Marie Marks, AKA Regina Milbourne, author of the sham book Miami Psychic and veteran Gypsy con artist. I first exposed her on this here blog a little while back.
Well, this morning she appeared before Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato and pleaded guilty to a felony fraud count and agreed to pay back $65,000 to several victims. She was sentenced to probation.
I received the following from private investigator Bob Nygaard yesterday. He's the man who built the case and filed the complaint with the State Attorney's Office.
"This is Bob Nygaard the Private Investigator from Boca Raton that investigated and built the Organized Scheme to Defraud Case against Gina Marie Marks on behalf of the 5 women who were victimized in Broward County last year. I just wanted to give you an update.
Based on the quality and strength of my investigation and the pressure that was exerted on the Broward State Attorney's Office by your excellent coverage of the crime, Gina Marie Marks has decided to change her plea from Not Guilty to Guilty.
She will be pleading guilty to a felony, will receive probation, and will be paying back all the victims every single cent that she stole from them. I think that this is an excellent resolution to this case given the fact that although she has been implicated in defrauding numerous people she has never previously been convicted of a crime.
The victims will be receiving all of their money back AND Gina will finally be admitting that she has been engaged in a fraudulent fortunetelling scheme, on the record, in front of a judge. In addition if she violates her probation by engaging in any future crimes, she will run the risk of going to prison.
Ah, I love the smell of justice in the morning, yet it's bittersweet, as there are a lot of other beaten and broken people who lost huge amounts of money to this woman who will likely never see a cent of it back."
By Bob Norman - May. 8 2009
Professed psychic accused of swindling client
Authorities said Gina Marie Marks took $300,000 in cash, gift cards, and other items
March 17, 2010 By Rafael A. Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
Time was short, the psychic told her client. To keep her father from suffering a fatal heart attack, the client had to act fast.
So she did. The client went to the Aventura Mall and opened accounts in several stores, using the credit to buy thousands of dollars in gift cards, which she then turned over to the psychic.
It worked. The heart attack never came.
But the arrest did. Professed psychic Gina Marie Marks is in trouble with the law again, this time facing charges she swindled a former Coconut Grove woman out of nearly $300,000 in cash, gift cards, jewelry, and other merchandise, the Broward Sheriff's Office said.
An arrest warrant detailed the gift card allegation along with a host of increasingly bizarre and expensive demands that took place over a 19-month period that ended in February. Marks, 37, was arrested last Thursday and is being held without bail at the Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach.
According to the arrest warrant, Marks duped her victim into forking over large amounts of cash and performing strange rituals that made the gift card spending spree seem reasonable.
At one point, the client was allegedly asked to rub gel over her body, wrap herself in cellophane and go for a six-mile jog. That was in September 2008, according to a private detective later hired by the victim's family. The woman went for the jog while wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants, said the detective, Bob Nygaard.
The Sheriff's Office described the victim as being in a "fragile mental state," but Nygaard said that was the result of her interaction with Marks. Nygaard, who has investigated allegations against Marks before, said the victim was manipulated and conned into giving Marks money so that Marks could "cleanse" it and return it to her.
The money was never returned, the Sheriff's Office said.
Marks, of Hollywood, had been arrested several times before on similar charges. She currently faces charges of illegally obtaining property over $50,000, grand theft and violation of probation.
Psychic Fortune Teller Scams
Shopping for Psychic Scam Victims
An Hispanic woman approached me when I went for dinner in a mall in Boston after attending a conference there on Aug 26, 2010. She gently grabbed my arm from behind, and told me that we needed to talk. She didn’t look like a bad person, and introduced herself as “Angelina”. She had big brown eyes, long dark hair, was roughly 5' 1 tall, and claimed to be 32 years old and from New York.
Angelina told me that she was a psychic and my spirit had asked her to help me because I was in trouble. She elaborated that I was meant to reach a higher level in my career, as well as meet my soul-mate, BUT something evil was holding me back.
Repeatedly she said she saw four evil spirits around me. Apparently, someone years before had placed a curse or darkness upon me and this was the cause of all my worries and unhappiness, that it affected my past, present and would affect my future even worse… and so on.
Then she stated that if I wanted to be happy she had the gift and power to remove the curse placed on me and was able to do so for a “one-time fee” of only $151. She told me that the money was for her church and that upon payment she would do some meditation that night focusing on helping me.
I told her I didn’t have that kind of money with me, so she asked me to give her as much I could and to give her the rest after I got back home. She was very persuasive, and I was receptive, especially since my workplace is going to shut down and I am about to lose my job. Vulnerable and worried, I agreed to try and gave her $100. She asked me to call her next day after I arrived home, and she would tell me who had placed the curse and how to break it.
I called Angelina after I got home and she told me that she needed to do more meditation because the evils were ever so strong. She first stated that the curse was placed on me by a jealous female friend and that the person used things that were not natural or holy to commit this act, but then it turns out the curse was put on my Mom originally and carried over the generation. We set a time and a place to meet each other.
I met Angelina again in a Mall in the evening on August 30, 2010. I gave her the remaining $51 and she said I needed to create a "package". She asked me to write down “10” things I'd need for it. The first nine things would be easy to get but didn’t make any sense to me at all. The last thing made me very suspicious since she wanted me to get “nine” $100 bills. She kept telling me the money would get back to me afterwards and that I had nothing to lose.
Eventually, she realized that I don’t have that much money so she asked me to get “nine” $20 bills instead and to then wrap everything in a white shirt and put the package under my bed overnight. She asked me to call her when I had everything ready, so she could meditate for me at the same time. Then we would set a time to meet again so she could examine everything in the wrapping.
As I walked through a supermarket gathering all the things she instructed, I started feeling really foolish and decided to call it off. I called Angelina but she didn’t pick up my call. I left a message for her that I was not comfortable to do what she suggested and I haven't heard from her since.
Here's her ad running in Chinese papers which seems to suggest she targets Chinese victims like myself..
ANGELINA World Renown Spiritual Psychic. RATED #1. Helps Love, Marriage, Family, Business. Reunites Separated. Spiritual Cleansing for Mind, Body, Spirit. Guaranteed Immediate Results. 1-347-777-5727
Luckily I'm just out $151 and rid of one curse, the scamming psychic known as Angelina.
Amy C.
Psychic Scammer Didn't See Private Eye on Her Trail
On February 25, 2011 fraudulent gypsy psychic fortuneteller, Priscilla Kelly Delmaro, was arrested after turning herself in on warrants that were issued for her in regards to crimes that she is alleged to have committed in both Broward and Palm Beach Counties.
The details of the Palm Beach crime is as follows;
Over the course of a 4 day period, beginning on December 19th, 2009 through December 22nd, 2009 , “PSYCHIC GIANNA” , AKA “Priscilla Kelly Delmaro”, AKA “Kelly Delmaro”, DOB 03/09/1989, who once resided at 1841 Bomar Dr., North Palm Beach Florida, did knowingly and willfully engage in a scheme to defraud a 22 year old Palm Beach Gardens woman with the intent to obtain property from her by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises, or willful misrepresentations of future acts.
“Kelly Delmaro” did knowingly and willfully financially exploit the victim under the guise of assisting her. “Kelly Delmaro” did engage in a fortune-telling scheme and defrauded the victim of U.S. Currency, assorted jewelry, and a Gucci handbag, which had an aggregate value of over $30,000.
The crime involved gaining the victim’s confidence/trust, and then through careful managed manipulation, convincing the victim to give her money, jewelry, and a Gucci handbag/pocketbook. The victim was first accosted by Priscilla Kelly Delmaro while shopping at the Palm Beach Gardens Mall in December of 2009, where she received a “psychic reading” from “Kelly Delmaro” for a nominal fee ($40.00).
During the “reading”, “Kelly Delmaro” elicited information from the victim and then repeated the information back to the victim in such a way as to make her believe that she possessed certain “special powers” or “psychic abilities” (a technique known as “cold reading”).
“Kelly Delmaro” also learned information about the victim by looking at a photograph that the victim was told to bring to a subsequent “reading”, which was conducted at 1841 Bomar Drive, North Palm Beach. “Kelly Delmaro” convinced the victim that she had a “charcoal grey aura”, that she was surrounded by “negativity”, and that “evil spirits” were plaguing her.
She convinced the victim that she would never achieve happiness unless the “negativity” and the “evil spirits” were removed. She defrauded the victim by making numerous false promises and willful misrepresentations to her.
She told the victim that she needed to perform various rituals to remove the “negativity” and “evil spirits”.
She was instructed to go to the bank and withdraw 22 bills, 'the bigger the better" -the significance of the number 22 being that it was her age), put them in an envelope, and write down all her problems/anything that was bothering her in her life on a piece of paper.
She also instructed the victim to get an egg, kiss it, blow on it, say prayers, and move it all around her body, especially in the vicinity of her "woman area" (Delmaro had previously told the victim that she had problems in her “woman area”) before she went to bed.
She said that she needed to place everything under her bed prior to going to sleep that night. She impressed upon the victim that it was very important that she not tell anyone about the “work” that they were doing" because she said it would "ruin everything."
She said that if the victim told anyone, she would no longer be able to help her. The victim went home and subsequently performed the rituals involving the money and the egg as instructed.
The next morning “Kelly Delmaro” instructed the victim to bring the envelope containing the money, the white piece of paper that she had written all her problems on, and the egg to her house. The victim drove to Delmaro’s house.
When the victim arrived, Delmaro informed the victim that despite the fact that she had performed all the rituals, there was still ninety percent "negativity" left and that her "aura" was still "charcoal grey". She said that there was a lot more work that needed to be done.
Delmaro then performed some rituals, which involved a Buddha statue, the lighting of some candles, and some incense. Delmaro instructed the victim to stand in the corner while holding the burning incense and she instructed the victim to read from the piece of paper/letter that she had written all of her problems on. At one point, Delmaro came over and hugged the victim.
Delmaro subsequently took the egg, placed it in a Publix bag, and tried to break it but she said it would not break. Delmaro finally pulled the egg out of the bag (of course she had switched it) broke the egg open and showed the victim a "black wormy snake like creature" that she said had come out of the egg.
She said, "look what came out of your body, look these are the "evil spirits" that came out of your body!" Delmaro scared the victim half to death. Delmaro said, "If I don't take care of this within three hours "it" (the evil spirits) will come back to me!"
Delmaro then showed the victim a catalogue. She showed the victim an item that looked like a "small gold house/shrine" and said, "This costs $10,000 dollars". She said, "You have to buy this because we need to put the egg in it and bury it together!"
She also showed the victim a "gold shield" and said, "This is a "gold shield" that you will need to buy "for protection", it costs $15,000 dollars but don't worry you will be able to sell it and get all your money back once we are done."
She told the victim that they needed to act very quickly and that there was no time to waste. Delmaro said that she had to go to "the church" and consult with her "superior" right away about everything.
She convinced the victim that various “bad things” would happen to her if she didn’t purchase the $15,000 “gold shield” right away, and that someone in her family would die in 2010 if she didn’t purchase the $10,000 “gold shrine/house” right away.
She convinced the victim that it was imperative that the money, jewelry, and Gucci handbag/pocketbook that she had coerced her into giving her all needed to be taken to “her superior” at “the church” to be blessed and “cleansed of evil spirits”.
She assured the victim the property would be returned once it had been cleansed but it never was.
“Kelly Delmaro” did obtain over $30,000 of property from the victim by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises, and willful misrepresentations of future acts.
The victim subsequently realized that giving “Kelly Delmaro” all of her life’s savings in just the matter of a few days had been a huge mistake. She called Delmaro and asked for her money back but Delmaro said that she couldn’t return it.
The victim realized that she had been conned. The victim went to Delmaro’s house to try to get her money back but Delmaro still refused to return it. The victim subsequently called Delmaro numerous times demanding her money back but Delmaro kept making excuses and stalling her.
Finally Delmaro told the victim that she would give her everything back and instructed the victim to come to her home on a future date but when the victim arrived on the designated date at the designated time as instructed she discovered that the house was empty and Delmaro had fled.
Now fully realizing that she had been “conned” the victim enlisted the help of Boca Raton Private Investigator Bob Nygaard, an expert in “Bunco crimes”, to locate Delmaro and build a criminal case against her.
(*Note-Private Investigator Nygaard is a decorated retired NY police officer and member of the National Association of Bunco Investigators who conducted investigations on behalf of eight Broward County women in 2008 and 2009 which led to multiple convictions of well-known fraudulent gypsy psychic fortuneteller “Gina Marie Marks”)
Private Investigator Nygaard conducted an intensive investigation, located Delmaro at 1631 NE 51st St, Fort Lauderdale in Broward County, built a criminal case against her, and forwarded the case to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Financial Crimes Unit.
The case was then presented to the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office with a warrant request. While the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office was reviewing the warrant request, Priscilla Kelly Delmaro was arrested in Broward County by the Wilton Manors P.D. for a misdemeanor offense dealing with returning merchandise using bogus sales receipts.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office subsequently issued a capias warrant for the felony offenses that Priscilla Kelly Delmaro had committed in Palm Beach County.
Officers attempted to arrest Delmaro at 1631 NE 51st St., Fort Lauderdale on the warrant but by that time she had already fled from that address as well. Delmaro subsequently failed to appear at her scheduled court dates (calendar call, and change of plea hearing) in Broward County pertaining to the Broward County offense.
An arrest warrant was subsequently issued by Judge Mary Robinson. Priscilla Kelly Delmaro finally turned herself in last Friday (February 25, 2011) and she is now facing charges in both Broward and Palm Beach counties. Bond was set at $9,500.
--- It is extremely likely that Priscilla Kelly Delmaro” AKA “Psychic Gianna” has victimized other vulnerable residents of both Broward AND Palm Beach Counties who might come forward as a result of the publication of this story.
All the information in this story was obtained from Private Investigator Bob Nygaard and is accurate in regards to the facts and circumstances concerning the crimes that Priscilla Kelly Delmaro is alleged to have committed.
Should you need any additional details you can contact P.I. Bob Nygaard at 561-596-3443, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Financial Crimes Unit, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office, the Wilton Manors P.D., and the Broward County State Attorney’s Office.
P.S. The name of the victim is purposely being withheld out of respect for the victim since the emotional abuse and financial devastation that victims are subjected to at the hands of fraudulent psychic fortunetellers is immeasurable and the victims are often extremely embarrassed about having been “conned.”
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