A Tarot Scam!

Queen Hippolyta

I had reserved feeling on reporting this but now I feel I ought to. People like this make the rest of look bad. The average person out there would be easy to fool but not us so here goes.

I was at a flea market when I saw a lady giving tarot readings. She did not know I did them too. I chatted her up to "feel" her out, then went on to shop. Later I passed by her booth again and saw her tarot cards laying on her table. As I stared at them I noticed that something was wrong. So I sat down and picked them up. I noticed the stack was rather thin. So I counted the cards. There were only 38! Her deck was the kind that should have had 78 but she was only using 38 plus she was mostly using cards from the Major Arcana.

She did come back and see me looking at her cards and asked me "what I was doing?" I just told her "your cards are beautiful, what are they called?". Truly they were, if she had the full deck!

I wanted to tell her she was not giving people the full reading by doing this, but I just left "the fool" upright on the table and hoped she got the message.

Queen Hippolyta
 

BodhiSeed

Sounds like she was just using the major arcana and the court cards...
 

Queen Hippolyta

BodhiSeed said:
Sounds like she was just using the major arcana and the court cards...
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From what I recall mostly cards that would produce a false positive reading, if you get my gist.

Have you seen this before?
 

thegracesattar

Goodness, that happened to me this weekend, too!
I was a vendor at a weekend-long show catering to mystical pursuits and wellness - they had a few card readers, a couple of intuitive readers, reiki, reconnective healing, thai yoga massage, etc.

The lady beside me on the 2nd day (she only booked the table for one day) was doing tarot readings. My husband started chatting her up about her cards. He told me afterwards that she had the majors, the aces of each suit, a couple of twos, and maybe 4 or 5 other cards. My husband listened with one ear to a couple of her readings. He said that she read the individual cards - she didn't "put them all together" to see what the whole message was. and he also said that he could have given similar readings, and he's never actually done a reading - just listened and watched as I've done mine to practice and learn.

She was rather upset at the end when it was time to start packing up, and she told me that she just made enough to pay for her table.

I think it is a wonderful thing for people to share with others if they know how to read the message that the universe is relaying through the cards. And I think it's great if those people can earn money while doing so. I think it's horrible when people try to "make a fast buck" by exploiting other people's fears/worries
 

HOLMES

it wouldnt' necessary give a false reading

i would give the example of a tarot reader in winnipeg who used to read at the choculate shop on main street(i dont' know if she still does as i havent' had a reading in winnipeg in so me years ).
she would take out the death card, the devil card, and all the swords..and read like that for years..

the reading you would get wouldn't be a false reading,, it just would be limited,, there is no difference beteen the 38 and the reader who just reads with the major arcana, or reading with an oracle deck that doenst' necessary have the death card,or devil card in it eh .

in my view it wasnt' a tarot scam, although the person could of advertised it as the tarot oracle, or perhaps she would of explained it to you like the lady who used her limited tarot deck explaind it to me.

it would of been a scam if the person doesnt' know how to read the tarot,, or just give general readings half fast i think.
 

Ashtaroot

I don't see anything wrong with her deck, so what she can use whatever she want and still give a good reading. There are no rules that you have to use all the cards. I am in the group with "whatever works".

Now if she was scamming or reading from a book while giving a reading I would have a problem. Other than that she can use whatever she wants, majors with a fork and a rock for all I care ... As long as she is giving a good reading:)
 

Queen Hippolyta

thegracesattar said:
Goodness, that happened to me this weekend, too!
I was a vendor at a weekend-long show catering to mystical pursuits and wellness - they had a few card readers, a couple of intuitive readers, reiki, reconnective healing, thai yoga massage, etc.

The lady beside me on the 2nd day (she only booked the table for one day) was doing tarot readings. My husband started chatting her up about her cards. He told me afterwards that she had the majors, the aces of each suit, a couple of twos, and maybe 4 or 5 other cards. My husband listened with one ear to a couple of her readings. He said that she read the individual cards - she didn't "put them all together" to see what the whole message was. and he also said that he could have given similar readings, and he's never actually done a reading - just listened and watched as I've done mine to practice and learn.

She was rather upset at the end when it was time to start packing up, and she told me that she just made enough to pay for her table.

I think it is a wonderful thing for people to share with others if they know how to read the message that the universe is relaying through the cards. And I think it's great if those people can earn money while doing so. I think it's horrible when people try to "make a fast buck" by exploiting other people's fears/worries
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Thank you so much!! I am now glad I posted this. I was a little worried at first. There are tarot decks that have fewer cards and this woman could have used them. Or just read tea leaves, or I Ching or anything.

I have a tarot deck that has only 40 cards and one may ask a yes/no question and only draw two cards from the deck. It is that easy! However to not use the whole deck is to cheat the person of a full reading!!
 

Queen Hippolyta

HOLMES said:
i would give the example of a tarot reader in winnipeg who used to read at the choculate shop on main street(i dont' know if she still does as i havent' had a reading in winnipeg in so me years ).
she would take out the death card, the devil card, and all the swords..and read like that for years..

the reading you would get wouldn't be a false reading,, it just would be limited,, there is no difference beteen the 38 and the reader who just reads with the major arcana, or reading with an oracle deck that doenst' necessary have the death card,or devil card in it eh .

in my view it wasnt' a tarot scam, although the person could of advertised it as the tarot oracle, or perhaps she would of explained it to you like the lady who used her limited tarot deck explaind it to me.

it would of been a scam if the person doesnt' know how to read the tarot,, or just give general readings half fast i think.
Click to expand...

All I know is that I checked around before I posted this and several people told me that without all 78 cards it is not a "complete" reading and they do not understand why she would do this. I was told that those 78 cards are there for a reason.
 

HOLMES

then

then by the same token,, several of the tarots that were created with extra suits, extra cards are frauds as well by that same arguement, which is clearly not the case i think.
also some people make a tarot and leave out cards but still call it a tarot so you have a reduction and extension of tarot principles seen in the deck creation itself.
 

lilangel09

I would not necessarily call this a scam, unless she was taking people's money and scaring them into giving more.

She could have... only the positive cards.

or... only the negative cards. (Which is usually used by scammers to add to the scare factor.)

or some other variant.

You'd just have to listen to a reading to see what she was doing to find out if she's a scammer. She could be legitimate, but uses only some of the cards. Majors only is also legitimate Tarot. If you can read with Majors only, why not half a 78-card deck?
 
Do you have to be a mind-blowing psychic to read professionally? Just reflecting what I think