Scammers can be convincing, confusing, and cunning. I'm sharing 3 huge red flags, how to spot them and what to do {& NOT do} PLUS several tips to tuck in your tool belt so YOU never get scammed by fake psychic mediums or spiritual practitioners. 

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Hey beautiful soul Welcome to spirits speakeasy. I'm Joy Giovanni joyful medium. I'm a working psychic, medium energy healer and spiritual gifts mentor. This podcast is like a seat at the table in a secret club, but with mediums, mystics and the spiritual luminaries of our time. So come behind the velvet ropes with me and see inside my world is I chat insider style with profoundly different souls. We go deep share juicy stories laugh a lot, and it wouldn't be a speakeasy. Without great insider secrets and tips, you might even learn that you have some gifts of your own. So step inside the spirits Welcome back to spirit speakeasy podcast, whether you are joining us for the first time, or you are already a regular listener, and just here for this solo episode. To be with me, I am so happy to have you spending this time with me. And I'm really excited to share this topic with you today because it is just so top of mind. It's something that happens all the time. Today, I want to talk to you about not getting scammed, the stakes, a couple of cautionary tales, and what to do, I'm gonna give you three specific ways. And then even within those ways, I'm going to break them down to some point A and point B and some more specific points in there, I have to tell you, this is something that happens all the time. And a lot of people believe that it's just because now we have social media and the Internet and email. But truthfully, if you're old enough, no one else to share their age. If you're old enough, you remember when the scams used to be done by people door to door or through your mail or even calling on a landline if you are old enough to have one of those or remember what those are. I know many of us are, you know, I remember being a kid and people calling on the phone at my house like before cell phones existed and trying to elicit information or you know, get get money or they try to have people send money. These scams have been going on for I'm sure as long as there has been a monetary exchange between people. But now that we have the internet and social media, it's just another way that people who are dishonest and wanting to take advantage of others are able to try to scam people. So let's talk today a little bit about how to not get scammed. I am so tired of people who follow me or like my work or friends getting scammed. First I want to talk quickly about when someone should receive a reading, I'm going to do a whole nother episode about you know when to receive a reading. But I have to say I believe that we should receive a reading we should go you know find a medium or an intuitive or whatever it is you enjoy and receive a reading when your soul is moving you to do so. So I'll tell you as a medium, the hardest readings are when someone's just curious, they have no great need on their heart. They have no one in particular that they're hoping to hear from they don't really have any relatives they were close to the energy doesn't move the same for me as the practitioner as the worker. Now, I never asked anyone to share any information with me up front. But there's a different energy when someone has a need when someone has something going on in their life that they just need some guidance around or when they've lost someone that they're were very close to or that they love very much and are in their soul needing to hear from this person. So as a beginning to this talk, I just want to share that with you. Because often, you know, we'll see it as we go through these points. If someone's reaching out to you, you don't have a need on your soul, that's them having a need or trying to invoke a need and you when maybe you don't have one, maybe you do, but maybe you don't. And I'm gonna say this throughout this episode, but I never direct message or reach out to people with deals or to solicit. I don't do that I don't believe in it. So if you're ever receiving messages from someone pretending to be me as in that effect, right? They're asking you for money or they're asking you to book a session through any type of direct message. That's not how I work. I only accept bookings through my website joyful medium.com where my clients are the ones who book themselves pay themselves I never see a credit card. I don't store that information. So just to give you a quick bit about how I work and that might help you understand if you are someone I know so many of you have been reached out How to Buy fake profiles of me of other mediums. But truthfully, it's not just in this spiritual realm, I see it across all types of businesses. So don't feel like it's just the spiritual businesses that are targeted, I see this across every type of business that you could possibly imagine. So let me get into these three main ways that people are getting scammed, and what to look for some red flags for you tips, and then I'm going to give you some things to consider of what you might want to do instead. So number one, I want to talk about fake profiles. And three tips to watch for we were just already talking about that a little bit. There are so many fake profiles out there. And like I said, I see them not only for myself, but for colleagues, friends and people in totally separate fields. So three tips to watch for with fake profiles. And this is across any social media platform, of course, look for number one small differences in the user name. So typically, they're going to be putting an underscore or adding an extra letter, perhaps like an iron L that doesn't belong there. It's misspelled in some way, or they're putting the funky punctuation. So it could be a period or a slash, or a dash or an exclamation point, they're adding extra characters into the user name, and the user names wrong. So that's the first red flag to look for second red flag to look for, you can actually go into the comments like if a profile requests you, for example, and you don't know them, and you're not sure, and maybe it's me, or maybe it's not or another practitioner, go into that profile, and start looking at the comments under the posts or videos, because they won't be the same as on my page. So on my page, particularly on Instagram, and Facebook, I tend to be very interactive with people on my page on my profile for commenting, I try really hard to get back to everyone into comment back. So you'll see under the posts and my pages, conversations of me and the people that are commenting. So if you look at a fake page, profile page, whatever, they're not going to have those conversations under them, it won't be the same, it'll be missing. So if you are someone who has ever engaged with me or interacted with me, our conversations won't be there. That is a big red flag. Number three red flag that I want to share with you is typically the link in bio. So a lot of pages and profiles allow you to put a link in the bio or a link, somewhere on the page to an actual website. The link doesn't go to my official website, or the official website of the practitioner who was supposed to be so check the link in bio, see if it goes to their actual website, or the website of the person that you're following. And this is not really you know, that one's a red flag for sure. Check the links in bio, check the link, see where they go? Are they even linked? Do they go to this person's official website. Some of them are crafty, and it will go to the official website. But I got a tip for you on that too.
Now, if you see these fake profiles, fake accounts, report, report, report, do not engage them. So many people message me and say Oh, I I've told them and I told them that they shouldn't be doing this. And when you engage them, it just allows them to go deeper into hiding. They make changes and Instagram or Facebook or Tik Tok or these social accounts can't as easily catch them. Because once you engage with them, a you're opening yourself up to other potential dangers. If they're harmful person more than just online. Be you've now alerted them that you know that there's a problem with this account and see, when they hide these platforms can't find them as easily. So report them, report them, report them, please report them. It takes several times of different people reporting for the platform to actually do anything. As a business owner, the owner of a real profile. I can't do anything about all these fake accounts. I have no recourse. It's not my account being hacked. For example. It's just someone making a dummy account a fake account, so report them please don't engage. Okay, our second umbrella of tips that I want to move to is a psychic medium spiritual practitioner practitioner messaging you on a social media platform in the DMS the direct messages that messenger or even I've seen it as a comment or reply to a comment that someone made. So sometimes someone will comment on one of my posts. A scammer will reply to that comment and say message Give me for a reading. That's a scam. Never ever do that. But often they're messaging people in their direct messages in their messengers and offering either like a deeply discounted reading. Never, ever, ever, ever send money to these people, or give any credit card information or personal information every single time that there's a fake account of me and I've heard this from colleagues and friends, there are several people who message me and say I sent them money. Don't ever send anyone money like that. A legitimate person has a booking site that you can book through, that is obvious that it goes to their company. So never send anyone money that direct messages you asking for money. The other way that they'll use these direct messages that I really want to give you a heads up on perhaps you hadn't even thought of this, I hadn't even thought of this. Sometimes someone will message and won't ask for money right away. They won't say like, I've got this $44 special. Sometimes they'll message and say things like I was drawn to your profile, I have a message for you. Someone you love in the spirit world needs to tell you something, and I'm drawn to you and you have to book with me to get this message. That's not real. I don't know any legitimate psychic medium spiritual practitioner that works that way period. And another way that I've seen them do it, this breaks my heart. This is one of the most unethical things I've ever seen. Clearly, if they're a scammer, they don't have scruples about them in this way anyway. But I have had more than one person message me and say, This scammer reached out to me pretending to be you pretending to be me. And basically said, Hey, someone you love is in danger. I have information that I have to give you. There's this dangerous situation happening around your child, and I can see what's going on and I need to give you this message. Again, this is so unethical, so dishonest, so harmful and totally fake. Any real medium, psychic, intuitive reader, spiritual practitioner, we don't connect into the energy of people's profiles and get information about their families. That's not real. That's not the way this work works. So please don't listen to anyone messaging you reaching out to you saying they have a message for you, they can see a special message in your aura. They know information about your kids, all of that are the biggest red flags for scammers. So please don't fall for that if someone is reaching out to you in your DMS in just a minute, I'm gonna give you some ways to kind of do some checking out. And the third thing I want you to be really aware of, is anyone offering to quote unquote cure you or telling you Oh, I see a black cloud around you, there's a curse on you. There's someone you know your your partner's ex is putting a hex on you and wanting to do harm. All of that is a telltale sign of a of a scammer. Any time I've even seen it you guys, I hate to say this, I've even seen it where they're reaching out to people with serious chronic illnesses and saying, I can cure you. That's not real. That's a scam 100% of the time. Of course there are complementary therapies, there are other things you can research and do as a part of your wellness. But no one should be reaching out to you or messaging you in any way and telling you that they're going to cure you or they're going to remove a curse from you or anything like that scammers, so be aware of our fake profiles. Be aware for people sliding into your DMS or your messenger or reaching out messaging you in any way. Or anyone who is saying they have a message for you or they want to cure you or you've got a curse. All big red flags, hard pass on that don't get scammed by these people, you guys. Now some things I really want you to consider. So now we've talked about what not to do, but let me tell you what you could consider doing. One thing I want to make you aware of is quote unquote, real psychics and mediums were highly trained. Even though this is a spiritual gift that's a natural part of us. Most of us are extensively trained to know how to understand and use these gifts. So most of us are highly trained we've put a lot of time and money into our education's sometimes more than a college education, for example, and often enough years to be a doctorate for example, as far as like years of education and schooling. So don't expect the sessions to be $44 or $50 or $99. Every area is different. And so depending on the area of the country that you're in, or what country you're in, the baseline pricing will be different. But too low of a price is a total red flag. And I just want you to consider, you know, most of us are highly educated, highly practice practitioners. And our rates reflect that. That's just the truth. Unless it's, for example, student special pricing, where someone is still learning and they're being very upfront and letting you know, hey, this is special pricing, because I'm a student. Or, for example, if they offer like a mini reading, where it's like a 15 minute reading, that might be a reduced price. Or, for example, if you're going to like a psychic fair or an event where they have many psychics reading, and you buy a package for like a few mini readings, something like that might be a lower price. But if you're trying to book a regular session with someone, too low pricing is a red flag, just like anything else in life, right? I mean, how many times in your own life have you seen, you know, either like a used car for sale or a house for sale, and the price is just about, you know, 25% of what it should be? So the price should actually be four or five times what it is, but it's so reduced, you know, something's wrong, like that's a scam for sure, in any area. So just want you to consider that. Something else to consider? Do your due diligence, Google them. I mean, we have this amazing technology, right? Even though some times it drives us crazy. And in some ways, it opens us up a little bit to potential scammers and other ways this technology is amazing. So Google them or do whatever web search you like, do they have a website? Does their website have social media links, mine does. And most of the people I know that have websites, there are links to social platforms in the website. So if you were to go to my website, for example, you could click on the little social media icons and be taken to my real page. So go and see if they have a website, click into the social media, little icons, little pictures and see where it takes you. If it takes you to their real account. There you go. If that doesn't match a fake account, that's messaging you it's pretty easy to figure out if you just do a little checking. It's great to use. Like I said, if you're unsure of any social media account, typically people have the links on their actual web pages. Do they have any YouTube content that you could check out, for example, to learn a little bit more about them to see if they're legitimate? To see you know, what their background is or how they work or anything about them? That'll just help you understand them a little bit more once you've decided, okay, this is a real person, this isn't a scammer, this is their actual account. Still check them out a little bit, don't just work with anyone.
The other thing is, what about reviews? Do they have reviews on a site like Google or Yelp? This will let you know that there are other people that have used this practitioner and this is across the board, really any practitioner, I mean, I even will do this before I'm gonna go to a restaurant. So maybe I'm a little more picky than the average bear. But I look up restaurants, I looked up a someone to make a key for me yesterday on one of these review sites, have other people used them. And then even within the reviews, right? Read the reviews. And here's why this is kind of a little known tip. Not everybody knows this. So maybe I'm giving you a little bit of a secret insider tip here for how to use these review platforms. But sometimes someone that has a lower star rating, I like to know what is this person unhappy about? Were they unhappy about the service itself? Do they feel like this person didn't do a good job? Or are there other things they're complaining about? Because I've seen people complain about they didn't like the parking or they didn't like the beverages they offered at the office or, you know, just some some things that for me, if I read them, I might be like, Okay, well, that doesn't determine yet. That's not a problem for me kind of a thing. And the other side of that coin then is sometimes a high review can give you more information about what to expect or where that practitioner strengths are. Because often, when someone leaves a review, sometimes they don't just say it was great. They'll go into detail and tell you what was so great about it. How did they feel? How did they enjoy it? What did they learn from their session? Any information like that is so helpful for you in deciding on a practitioner or to even understand what their strengths are because every practitioner has different strengths or different areas they work in so even reading the positive reviews can help you learn information. The other little thing is make sure that you read the not recommended reviews quote unquote not recommended. So Sometimes these platforms have, you know, we always hear the word algorithm, they have these algorithms, and they will hide certain reviews, it usually has nothing to do with the review itself, it more has to do with if that person is paying that platform to advertise. So sometimes if you're paying the platform, they will put all of the reviews on the main page. Sometimes if you're not paying that platform, they will hide several of the reviews or call them not recommended. And when you look at them, like, for example, on my Yelp page, all of the not recommended reviews are from legitimate clients with specific examples, most of them and all five stars, just the platform decided to hide them for no good reason. So make sure that you're doing a little digging, doing a little due diligence, you're gonna let this person work in the energy of your soul blend with you and work with you in a very private way, and possibly touching into some of the more difficult emotions of what's going on for you in your life, perhaps with your family, your career, your love life, any of these areas. And if they're medium, for example, like me, you know, people are letting me communicate and share time and space with their loved ones who have crossed over some of the most precious people, right? So I don't expect people to choose a practitioner lightly, really do some due diligence and make sure this feels like the right person for you. And another thing to consider that we often forget, use a little bit of intuition. How do you feel about this? You know, for example, when we're talking about someone reaching out to you and your direct messages, do some feel a little off about that. Even if they're telling you I have a message for you. If you read someone's website, and you look at their reviews, and you think I'm just kind of drawn to this person, I don't know why something about them feels right to me, that's fair to so allowing your intuition to be beside you to be with you working with you when you're checking out this person. And, you know, a little intuition and a little good sense goes a long way into protecting you against getting scammed. If it smells like poo, it probably is. Right. I should say that in a better way. If it walks like a skunk, and looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk. It's probably not a black cat with a white stripe, guys. I love Yeah. But we have to use our intuition or good sense. And maybe do a little due diligence, right? I just It breaks my heart when people get scammed. Whether it's on social media or any other way, I feel like social media is just so glaring right now, this happened to me. This week, it happened to me last month, it's quite honestly, it happens every couple months to most every practitioner I know and even friends I have that have totally unrelated businesses. So it's not an uncommon thing. It just breaks my heart for people who send money or for people who, you know, I in that example I gave that was an actual real client that messaged me and said, you know, sadly, this person, the scammer reached out to me direct message me said my child was in danger that they they had information about my child, and I needed to book a session with them for them to tell me about, you know, this danger that my child was in Hello Is that I mean, to tell someone that, you know, you psychically have information that their child is in danger. And that's, that's just, I don't know, I It makes me so upset for this person. They did end up paying for a session and then very quickly realized it wasn't me and they were getting scammed. So I really want to protect you guys. I want you to protect yourselves. It's a big, big world out there. And again, as a person who owns a profile as a business owner, it's not possible for me to do anything about this. I have messaged these platforms myself, they won't really do much. They really base it off of how many people are reporting this profile is fake or reporting this person as a scammer or imposter, I guess is another way to say it. But I can't tell you how many people reach out to me messaging me clients, even that I've had for years and years that have been with me, since you know, when I was primarily doing massage and Reiki more than 10 years ago, and have been so upset with me saying someone's reaching out to me your account is hacked. Are you working with scammers? You know? Of course not. Of course I would never work with someone that was trying to hurt any of my clients or anyone at all really, if I knew about it, and it doesn't mean my accounts hacked and when They point out to them that perhaps if they just really carefully looked at the user name, sometimes it's the app name, or sometimes it's the name in the, the actual.com. It'll have like a slash and then a name after it. Check it out. Because usually, like I said, there are extra characters there extra punctuation, there is something off about the username, can't duplicate a username, really, on any of these platforms. And it's pretty obvious if you use the steps that we just talked about to check someone out. Please don't get scammed, please guard your hearts. Amazing work can be done with legitimate psychic mediums or spiritual practitioners. I have had so many clients and I have colleagues and friends and other respected mediums that I love their work. And some of these sessions are life changing for people, some of it lifts heaviness off of someone or gives them an inspiration or the specific details that can come through from the spirit world about how a loved one spends time with you or how their life was or you know, anything that might come up in a session. These can be life changing, if you find a good practitioner, and if you are not swept into or caught up with a scammer, so please don't be scammed. Stay safe out there. A little good sense and intuition goes a long way. And just think of the skunk. Right. I hope you all are really taking on board all of this information and gonna really do your due diligence and be aware when you're online. And if anyone's reaching out to you. And report report report. It's going to take a community, it's going to take all of us to combat this, especially when someone's bringing it into your direct messages or to your doorstep, so to speak. But we have to be a team and all reporting these people for any action to be taken. Unfortunately, that's the best recourse we have at this time. And again, never ever, ever, ever, ever. Never ever, ever send money, any kind of money app or anything like that. Please don't do it. I love you all. I am keeping you in my heart and really hoping that you take this on board because I just don't want anyone else messaging me that they've gotten scammed. Lots of love. Hugs. And bye for now.
Oh yeah. PS. If you like this podcast, I would love it if you subscribe and like and share. And if you want to start working with signs from the spirit world, getting specific signs from your own loved ones, or getting signs from the universe to help you make big life decisions. Or if you're someone who sees recurring numbers 1115 by 5444 1111, things like that, which I guess is 111 this course that I have, it's a free three day mini course it's called sign magnet, just go to my website, my official website, joyful medium.com Drop your email in and you can get immediate access to the first lesson and then you will also be on my VIP insiders list. So you can hear about free community healings which we have every month and lots of other wonderful things. Okay, now I've actually done so thank you so much for being here with me and sharing this time with me. I truly appreciate the time that we spend together. And I just love being here with you. And of course I don't want anyone to get taken advantage of so please let me know if this was useful for you or helpful or if you found some of the information new or surprising. I'd love to hear about it. You can either comment on the clips on my social media at joyful medium on Instagram or Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok all the places but just know that either way I'm sending you lots of love and big hugs and bye for now