• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Miss Cleo is dead at age 53

Status
Not open for further replies.
StoOgE said:
Wow. So fraud is ok because no one forced you to fall for it? SMH.
Click to expand...

Nope. The lawsuits against the parent company were perfectly justified. That doesn't mean I'm going to label a cancer victim as some sort of evil criminal just because she worked as an actress for said parent company. She was never even indicted.
 
I don't know much about her, but I was always under the impression she was an actress hired to play a character for TV. She probably assumed, like most folks do, that most everyone knows psychic hotlines are bullshit and are calling in for fun the way you do with horoscopes and ouija boards (especially since she had to have known that being a walking stereotype in a cheap production value TV commercial didn't scream "credibility" at all).

It's usually not until you actually see some of the desperate people who turn to psychics that you stop and think "damn this is a fucked up business". It would've been ideal if she had more scruples but it'd be like blaming the guy who plays Ronald McDonald for childhood obesity or something.
 
755a64648d3a.jpg
Click to expand...
.
 
She was a scam artist but all "psychic readers" are. I have no idea how much of a role she played in her company swindling people of millions of dollars besides her part as an actress/frontman. But cancer sucks so RIP. And thanks for the entertaining commercials in the late 90s/early 2000s.
 
Some of the cast of her productions claimed that they were never paid, and that Harris "told her cast members she had bone cancer" and "her medical costs would prevent her from paying people immediately", but she wrote each actor and crew member a letter telling him or her how much money she owed them.
Click to expand...

Bwahahahahahahaha...cough...hahhooooheh /dead
 
TimeEffect said:
Didnt people like her exploit people's fears and hopes?
Click to expand...

They all do. It doesn't justify it, but the psychic on the boardwalk is doing the same thing. She was just the face of a much bigger scheme.
 
It's like back in those days the only commercials that existed were Miss Cleo ones and those collect call services. You know, the "Call 1 800 C-O-L-L-E-C-T!!!" or "1 800 CALL ATT! One low rate ALL THE TIME!!!".
 
brickwalker0 said:
no kiddng, holy shit its the same joke everywhere i turn (internet, coworkers, etc).

low hanging fruit, folks. keep your day job.
Click to expand...

You're right. The best joke is that she faked cancer to steal money from people and then 20 years later... got cancer and died. It would be funnier if she'd gotten bone cancer but we can't have everything.
 
thebeeks said:
I know, he was incredible! His (along with Anthony Sullivan) super short-lived show Pitchmen is worth a watch if you can manage to find the episodes.
Click to expand...

Found out about this show shortly after his death and watched the series. It was good for what it was.
 
StoOgE said:
So, it's ok to advance the cause of fraudsters so long as you are low level and only doing your job?
Click to expand...

It was a call in psychic hotline that was labled for entertainment purposes, if anyone took it to be true life psychic advice, that's their own fault. Cleo got hired to play a part, she did it well and I don't think she should be held responsible for others not seeing it for what it's labeled for.
 
ryan13ts said:
It was a call in psychic hotline that was labled for entertainment purposes, if anyone took it to be true life psychic advice, that's their own fault. Cleo got hired to play a part, she did it well and I don't think she should be held responsible for others not seeing it for what it's labeled for.
Click to expand...

Still doesn't mean she wasn't at fault. Being the face of a Pyramid scheme doesn't make you any less a part of the machine because you weren't directly ripping stupid people off.
 
Can we really call her a con artist if her pitch was so outrageous to begin with? It's one thing she's a politician or banker who possesses an air of authority and professional accomplishment, but she's voodoo psychic. I was 14-years-old and didn't buy into her shit.
 
I was hoping the posts wouldn't go for the low hanging fruit.

I do remember seeing those ads. I should have tried to give a ring.
 
The Horror the horror said:
Can we really call her a con artist if her pitch was so outrageous to begin with? It's one thing she's a politician or banker who possesses an air of authority and professional accomplishment, but she's voodoo psychic. I was 14-years-old and didn't buy into her shit.
Click to expand...

You might have seen it, but plenty of vulnerable people did not, from whom she knowingly and willingly took money. That is the textbook definition of a con artist, no matter how entertaining you are.
 
HStallion said:
Still doesn't mean she wasn't at fault. Being the face of a Pyramid scheme doesn't make you any less a part of the machine because you weren't directly ripping stupid people off.
Click to expand...

Well that the key issue here, it was far from a pyramid scheme, which ropes in people with promises of payoff by getting others involved in the scheme. This was a legit business marketed as entertainment psychic hotline. Was it a bit shady? Sure, as a lot of those call in hotlines were from the late 80's/early 90's. Did it likely take advantage of gullible people who believed in this stuff? Absolutely. But at the same time, there were probably just as many people who used it as it was intended, for fun, and were content with what they paid for.

At the end of the day, I'm just not going to see her as this scrupulous, evil con-woman like some of you guys do. I doubt she even got paid enough to warrant that kind of distaste.
 
ryan13ts said:
Well that the key issue here, it was far from a pyramid scheme, which ropes in people with promises of payoff by getting others involved in the scheme. This was a legit business marketed as entertainment psychic hotline. Was it a bit shady? Sure, as a lot of those call in hotlines were from the late 80's/early 90's. Did it likely take advantage of gullible people who believed in this stuff? Absolutely. But at the same time, there were probably just as many people who used it as it was intended, for fun, and were content with what they paid for.

At the end of the day, I'm just not going to see her as this scrupulous, evil con-woman like some of you guys do. I doubt she even got paid enough to warrant that kind of distaste.
Click to expand...

Did she ever personally say that it was for entertainment only? I don't think she did. Text or announcer disclaimers are often just there to cover peoples' asses legally over non-issues and many are aware of this.
I don't see how anyone could even read her wiki and think she wasn't a con artist. And the linked references are far more damning.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Chuck Norris is dead
2 3 4
191
1K
jason10mm replied
'Buffy' Actor Nicholas Brendon Dead At 54
26
536
MMaRsu replied
I really miss Brent Hinds
5
193
RavenSan replied
Shame is dead. We killed it.
NSFW 
22
446
TDiddyLive replied
Metaverse is dead after $80 Billion poured into it
2
99
1K
Halcyon replied
Top Bottom