Ontario woman hands over $96K to psychic who claimed evil spirits would paralyze and kill her

Relationship-style frauds built on emotional manipulation cost Canadians more than $63 million in 2025 alone, and investment fraud remains the single costliest category, at $351 million. Psychic scams aren't tracked as their own category, which means cases like Nancy's likely aren't fully reflected in the official numbers at all.

It started with a $30 psychic reading advertised on Instagram. It ended with a Milton, ON, woman handing over her entire life savings — $96,000 — after she was told evil spirits would paralyze and kill her unless she paid to have them removed.

The woman, who goes by Nancy to protect her identity, says she was already at her lowest when she saw the ad two years ago — grieving the recent deaths of her father and brother, and in severe pain from a hip injury. "I cry everyday," she told CTV News.

Nancy's story isn't rare, and it isn't harmless. Fraud that plays on fear and grief cost Canadians more than $704 million in 2025, with reported losses since 2022 topping $2.4 billion. The Competition Bureau warns that figure represents only a fraction of the real damage, since only 5% to 10% of frauds are ever reported.

For Canadians who see psychics, or who have a parent or friend who does, Nancy's experience is a clear illustration of how a low-cost service can turn into a financial trap — and what to watch for before it does.

How did a $30 session become a $96,000 loss?

Nancy's first reading was cheap and casual. But once she was in the chair, she says the psychic told her she had "very bad black magic" working against her — a curse he said would leave her in a wheelchair, then kill her. Removing just one spirit, he told her, would cost $25,000; he claimed he would seal it in a container and bury it in a lake. Then he told her there were seven more spirits left to remove.

By the time it was over, Nancy had paid $96,000, and she said nothing about her health or her circumstances had actually changed. When the psychic's business later moved locations, calls went unanswered and messages went unreturned.

Why do scams like this work on people who are grieving or unwell?

Psychic fraud tends to follow the same playbook as many of the scams tracked by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), the federal body that collects fraud reports from across the country: fear, urgency and emotional manipulation, rather than a straightforward ask for money. A major warning sign, according to the CAFC, is any suggestion that a loved one will get sick, die, lose money or leave unless the target keeps paying. Grief, illness and isolation — all of which Nancy describes — are exactly the conditions fraud experts point to as raising someone's risk.