How to Spot a Fake Spell Caster (and Find a Real One)

By Hank, Graduate Gemologist & Professional Spell Caster | Crystal Conjure Magic

Wanting a little magic on your side is one of the most normal things in the world. So is worrying you’ll get played. If you’ve scrolled past a hundred spell casters and can’t tell the real ones from the fakes, you’re asking exactly the right question — and you shouldn’t have to be an expert to answer it. The people who track fraud have already done the hard part. Here are the scams they see most, the warning signs, and how to spot someone real — a checklist you can run on anyone, us included.

First, a quick distinction, because it matters here. A psychic reading tells you what someone claims to see. Spell casting is different: it’s someone performing a working on your behalf to help shift a situation. This post is about hiring the second kind — though many of the scams below hit both, because the same fakes often sell both.

The scams to know

Most of this happens in your DMs and comments now, not a storefront. The fraud still follows a few patterns.

The faceless seller. A nameless account, no real person you can find, and no sign anyone actually cast anything. As one psychic put it, “a nameless or faceless account should always raise concern.”⁷ If you can’t tell who is doing the work, that’s the first flag.

The guaranteed miracle. The pitch is a sure thing — your ex will definitely come back, the money’s guaranteed, the outcome is locked in. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is blunt: “Watch out for psychics who guarantee you good health, wealth, or fortune.”² Nobody real promises a specific outcome, because nobody real can. The same holds for spell casters.  No one can guarantee any spell's outcome. 

Pay-and-ghost. They take the money up front, then go quiet and never deliver. The Better Business Bureau, writing about online psychic and spiritual sellers, describes the pattern: a seller who “takes payment up front and frequently misses readings” and “eventually blocks you without refunding.”⁹ With a casting it looks the same — you pay, and you don't hear from them.  There’s no sign the work was ever done, and you can’t reach them. Watch how they want to be paid, too: a push for gift cards, crypto, or a Cash App or Venmo “friends and family” transfer is a way to make sure you can’t get it back.⁶

The curse-and-fee. The oldest one, and the most dangerous. Someone tells you you’ve been cursed and charges to remove it — then the curse is “stubborn,” so it needs more money, and more.¹ This is where people lose everything. In Oregon, a fortune-teller was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison and ordered to repay over $15 million after walking one victim through her savings.⁴ In New York, a psychic got 5 to 15 years after a single client paid her more than $120,000.⁵ If anyone tells you the only fix for your bad luck is to keep paying them, walk away.

The warning signs

Across all of these, the same tells show up. Any one of them is a reason to stop.

• A guaranteed outcome.²³
• A problem that keeps growing — new “issues” that always cost more to fix.³
• Fear — a warning that something bad will happen if you stop paying.³
• Payment you can’t get back — gift cards, crypto, or a Cash App / Venmo “friends and family” transfer.⁶
• “Keep this between us” — a push for secrecy.³
• Nobody real behind the account — no name, no experience, and no sign the work was actually done.⁷

How to find a real one

Now the reassuring part: a real caster is easy to recognize by the opposite signs, and you can check every one before you pay.

• A real name and a business you can find and message. The BBB warns against paying anyone who “does not clearly disclose how to reach them.”⁸
• A clear, total price — no “the spirits need more” add-ons. Know “the total cost,” the Postal Inspection Service advises, and “ask if there are any conditions and ongoing or hidden costs.”²
• No guarantees — a straight answer about what a spell can and can’t do.²³
• Reviews you can actually read, across more than one place.⁸
• A credential you can look up. There’s no license for spell casting, so this means a real, checkable qualification — not a badge someone gave themselves.⁸

Where we stand

Run that list on anyone — including us. Here’s where we land: a named practitioner, a real business, plain limits on what a spell can do, no guarantees, and reviews tied to real orders. Check us on our About Us and Reviews pages the same way you’d check anyone in your DMs.

And if you’d rather understand this stuff before you trust anyone with it, read first. Our blog has more than 150 free articles on white magic and spell casting — what a spell actually is, how the different kinds work, what’s realistic to expect. Learn enough that nobody can play you. A caster who teaches in the open is showing you their work, and that’s something you can check too.

You don’t have to be an expert to avoid a fake. You just run a short list the fraud investigators already wrote: a real name, a clear price, no guarantees, no secrecy, reviews you can see. Anyone worth your money will be glad you asked.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I tell if a spell caster is a scam?

Watch for documented red flags: a guaranteed outcome, a “curse” that costs more and more to remove, fear or pressure, demands for payment you can’t get back (gift cards, crypto, Cash App/Venmo friends & family), and requests to keep it secret. Agencies including the FTC, AARP, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service warn about all of these.

What is the “curse removal” scam?

Someone tells you you’ve been cursed and charges to remove it, then says the curse is stubborn and needs more money for bigger rituals — a cycle designed never to end. It is a documented, prosecuted fraud.

Should a spell caster guarantee results?

No. Nobody real guarantees a specific outcome, and consumer agencies list guarantees of health, wealth, or love as a warning sign. Honest work comes with its limits stated up front.

How do I check if a spell caster is legit?

Look for a real name and a business you can contact, a clear total price with no hidden add-ons, no guarantees, no secrecy, and reviews you can read across more than one site. The BBB and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service recommend these checks for any service.

Sources

1. The “curse removal” escalation pattern. Fraud.org (National Consumers League)
2. “Watch out for psychics who guarantee you good health, wealth, or fortune”; “be sure you know the total cost”; “ask if there are any conditions and ongoing or hidden costs.” U.S. Postal Inspection Service
3. “Keeps finding new things wrong… for a fee”; “something bad will happen… if you don’t pay”; “guarantees outcomes they have no control over”; “Don’t comply if a psychic service provider tells you to keep interactions secret.” AARP
4. Rachel Lee: sentenced to 100 months in federal prison and $15,490,978.65 in restitution. U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Oregon
5. Sylvia Mitchell: convicted of grand larceny, sentenced to 5 to 15 years; one client paid more than $120,000. CBS News / AP
6. Never pay by wire transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency, or a payment app on someone’s insistence. FTC
7. “A nameless or faceless account should always raise concern” — psychic Inbaal Honigman, one practitioner’s view. Women Love Tech
8. Reachable contact; search the name with “reviews” across sites; references; credential check. Better Business Bureau
9. “Takes payment up front and frequently misses readings”; “eventually blocks you without refunding.” BBB Scam Alert

Go In Informed

The best protection against a fake is knowing what you’re looking at — what real magic can and can’t do, and what an honest caster will tell you before you pay. If you want to go in informed, start here:

• What Happened to the Etsy Witches? — where the real casters went when the marketplaces changed, and how to find them now.
• Is Magic a Fraud, a Scam, a Fake, or a Hoax? — the honest answer to the question under all the others: is any of this real?
• The Ten Laws of White Magic — what an honest caster will and won’t promise you, drawn from 60,000 castings.
• The Ten Myths of Spell Casting and Spell Casters — the common misunderstandings that make people easy to fool, cleared up.