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[Dalek]

Man Who Gave Psychics $718,000 ‘Just Got Sucked In’

He sat in a Denny’s restaurant, drinking coffee between cigarette breaks after a long and sleepless night, answering question after question.

He knew none of it made sense: He was a successful and well-traveled professional, with close to seven figures in the bank, and plans for much more. And then he gave it all away, more than $718,000, in chunks at a time, to two Manhattan psychics.

They vowed to reunite him with the woman he loved. Even after it was discovered that she was dead. There was the 80-mile bridge made of gold, the reincarnation portal.

“I just got sucked in,” the man, Niall Rice, said in a telephone interview last week from Los Angeles. “That’s what people don’t understand. ‘How can you fall for it?’”

There was even, between payments to one of the psychics for a time machine to cleanse the past, a brief romance.

“It’s embarrassing now,” he said.

In May, the police arrested one of the psychics, Priscilla Kelly Delmaro, 26, after Mr. Rice sought out a private investigator and decided to press charges. She was charged with grand larceny.

The man’s identity was not revealed in court documents. But Mr. Rice, a 33-year-old British consultant, said he chose to come forward last week after learning that the Manhattan district attorney’s office intended to allow Ms. Delmaro to plead guilty in exchange for a year in jail, and that it was unlikely he would ever see restitution. A hearing is set for Tuesday.

“I just want justice,” Mr. Rice said from Los Angeles, where he now lives. “I just don’t want her to do to anyone else what happened to me.”

It seems almost unfathomable that anyone could be taken in so thoroughly, with such a breathtaking level of gullibility. And so, Mr. Rice’s story begins.

By the spring of 2013, he had earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in search engine optimization, drawing traffic to websites in exchange for commissions. He was raised in a poor family, and planned to buy his mother a house in England.

But he was troubled. Painfully uncomfortable in social settings, he drank heavily and used drugs, he said. That year, he flew from England to Arizona to enter a rehabilitation clinic for acute anxiety, he said. In the clinic, he met a woman named Michelle, another patient.

“We had such a strong connection, it was unbelievable,” he said. “I loved her deeply.”

But the relationship ended a couple of weeks after they left rehab, when Michelle overdosed on pills and returned to the clinic. She broke it off with Mr. Rice. He said he agreed it was for the best.

He met a psychic named Brandy. “She knew a lot of stuff,” he said. Stuff about him. “‘I saw that you were connected to this girl,’” she told him.

He told her about Michelle. “She said, ‘If you could choose, would you want to be back with her?’ ” he said.

Yes.

She asked for $2,500 that day, and he withdrew it from a nearby Chase bank. She said he would have his money back soon.

“I ended up giving her 10 grand, 12 grand in the first week,” he said. “It’s hard to explain.”

He continued. “It wasn’t like saying, ‘Give me 10 grand and I’ll tie your shoelaces,’ ” he said. “There’s a half truth in there, there’s something in it. This whole psychic scam is based on them knowing what’s going on in your life. They have a gift.”

He bought a $40,000 ring from Tiffany & Company for Brandy to ward off evil spirits. He spent his birthday with her and her family, and they cooked him a steak. But he lost faith in her. He had recently visited Michelle in California, a disastrous five-minute conversation on the sidewalk. “The whole way I was caught up in it, she said afterward I was acting weird,” he said.

So he shopped around for a new psychic. He drove to work in Midtown Manhattan and parked his car in a garage near Times Square, on West 43rd Street. He noticed a psychic parlor across the street. There, he met Ms. Delmaro, who called herself Christina, Mr. Rice said.

“She somehow said all the right things,” he said. “It sounds mad now that I’m saying it.”

 

[lamaroo]

I swear there was a thread on this a while ago.

 

[zoozilla]

Is it weird that I feel weird that one of the psychics is going to jail?

I mean, he willingly gave her money for something he knew was impossible.

 

[ATXAlchemy]

I can build a fucking time machine, too.

Just need 718000 USD for the unobtainium.

I'm an engineer, trust me!

Spoiler

Come on... a time machine, what?

 

[outunderthestars]

Everyone should take a few minutes and read the entire article.

It's really quite bizarre. My money is on the psychic beating the charges, especially seeing that the guy slept with her....

 

[Dalek]

Everyone should take a few minutes and read the entire article.

It's really quite bizarre. My money is on the psychic beating the charges, especially seeing that the guy slept with her....

It is a really fascinating story.

 

[Oriel]

For someone so stupid you'd wonder how he became so wealthy to begin with.

 

[outunderthestars]

For someone so stupid you'd wonder how he became so wealthy to begin with.

By suckering even more dense people through SEO pitches.

 

[Dazza]

For someone so stupid you'd wonder how he became so wealthy to begin with.

There are far more than one type intelligence, plus we all have our "buttons"

 

[Rhomega Beta]

His bicycle is at the Alamo in the basement.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

She saw him coming.

 

[RELIGHT]

Hindsight is 20/20 but foresight is 1000000/20

 

[23qwerty]

Mr. Rice said he had just paid Christina $90,000 that she said was needed to build a bridge of gold in another dimension to trick an evil spirit that was haunting Michelle.

what

 

[OnPoint]

 

[Stinkles]

It should literally be illegal to run a business as a "psychic"

 

[Aarglefarg]

'She asked for $2,500 that day, and he withdrew it from a nearby Chase bank.She said he would have his money back soon.'
This seems like an important part.

 

[Zantetsuken]

This is exactly what I was thinking! It's a perfect meme face.

 

[cameron]

Unlike investment scams that are driven by greed, this psychic thing just seems sad.

But he was troubled. Painfully uncomfortable in social settings, he drank heavily and used drugs, he said. That year, he flew from England to Arizona to enter a rehabilitation clinic for acute anxiety, he said. In the clinic, he met a woman named Michelle, another patient.

But the relationship ended a couple of weeks after they left rehab, when Michelle overdosed on pills and returned to the clinic. She broke it off with Mr. Rice. He said he agreed it was for the best.

Dude has serious problems and isn't all there.

 

[Arkos]

I swear there was a thread on this a while ago.

Yeah I feel like this story has already been reported on too. Maybe this is a more in depth take on it

Edit: story from May
http://nypost.com/2015/05/27/psychic-cheats-heartbroken-man-out-of-700k-after-girlfriend-dies/

 

[jellies_two]

I find it somewhat telling that he made his "close to 7 figures" (which turns out to be close to the amount he lost) from SEO.

There are spooky parallels between SEO and psychic shenanigans. Reading the crystal ball and foretelling page rank to clients desperate for a fast and often paper thin answer, for a large fee?

 

[outunderthestars]

It should literally be illegal to run a business as a "psychic"

No worse than churches in my opinion.

 

[PFD]

LOL

 

[itwasTuesday]

I can build a fucking time machine, too.

Just need 718000 USD for the unobtainium.

I'm an engineer, trust me!

Spoiler

Come on... a time machine, what?

I keep my money in the future, just build the machine and we can go get it.

 

[Mario]

I swear there was a thread on this a while ago.

Yes, there was.

 

[erlim]

Seems like he has a very addictive personality and people took advantage of him.