Table of Contents
SSince tarot practitioner Rebecca Scolnick began reading cards professionally in 2018, she has been impersonated more than 50 times on Instagram. The scams often follow a similar pattern: Someone creates an account that mirrors hers, uses a nearly identical username, and reposts all of her photos. The scammer then approaches her followers with enticing spiritual messages. “Hi beloved,” they often begin. “Have you ever had an in-depth psychic reading?”
Scolnick, who has more than 11,000 followers on Instagram, regularly receives messages from fans saying they have paid for a reading from someone who is not actually her. After years of being awash With scammers and imitators, she and many tarot readers like her, along with other mystical practitioners, are exhausted and frustrated.
“If you’re seeking a tarot reading, you’re very vulnerable — these people are giving their money and energy to allow scammers into their personal lives,” Scolnick said. “It really sickens me to think that someone could be getting really abusive and horrible ‘advice’ that they paid for from someone who isn’t me.”
The problem has become so serious and persisted for so long – that tarot reader coded her own website as a means to find a solution. In May 2023, Scolnick joined a new online tarot website, Moonlight, which launched in March 2023 and is advertised as The first specific online tarot Market. It was founded by product designer, artist, and longtime tarot reader Danielle Baskin in part to address phishing scams and similar issues, as well as streamline the professional tarot space. The scheduling and payment capabilities built into the software give Moonlight legitimacy in an industry that is often not taken seriously by platforms or regulators.
“It’s a novel concept, but it’s been a long time coming,” said Baskin, who described Moonlight as “SaaS for witches,” referencing “software-as-a-service” companies and products like Salesforce and Figma.
Professionals say institutional indifference has left them and their clients exposed to scammers. Tech companies and tarot readers have had a particularly antagonistic relationship, which mystics say has exacerbated the risk of scams in their business: in 2021, payment processor Stripe forbidden “Psychic businesses” were barred from using its platform, which cut off tarot readers and other occult or spiritual services, many of whom used the payment processor to receive compensation for their work. As a large online payment processor, Stripe provided protection against fraud. Tarot readers who had used Stripe switched to peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo and CashApp — the tools of choice for scammers, too. Stripe later reversed its decision, but the policy persists in some jurisdictions that use Stripe, including Japan and Mexico.
How Lack of Blue Checks Ruins Online Tarot Reading
Instagram rarely allows verification for those who identify as witches or tarot practitioners, and if it does, it typically requires official identification, which may differ from the practitioner’s username or public persona. Without a blue checkmark on their profile, practitioners have little ability to distinguish themselves from scammers who create identical accounts, confusing followers. Tarot readers on TikTok face similar issues.
“The biggest issue facing online tarot readers today is the struggle for credibility,” Scolnick said. “You always have to prove your legitimacy, whether it’s to a payment processor or a platform, and have to say, ‘I run a business and I don’t deserve to have my clients fall victim to all these fraudulent accounts.’”
Moonlight currently has 25 approved tarot readers who can be booked through the site, with readings ranging from $50 to more than $200 per hour. Providers go through a rigorous onboarding process, Baskin said, meeting in person or via video chat to read tarot cards together and better understand the new provider’s style and practice. Moonlight also reviews applicants’ existing online presence to ensure they are a cultural fit for the site.
“Many of our practitioners already have their own communities and their practice is evolving,” Baskin said. “The four main things we look for are compassion, inclusion, integrity and wisdom.”
In addition to professional readings, the website allows users to play with virtual tarot decks for free in private chat rooms. The rooms, optimized for web browsers but also available on mobile devices, feature video and audio and can be opened for collaborative readings or used solo.
“The most magical part of tarot is that it’s great for conversation,” Baskin said. “I wanted to recreate the experience of sitting around a table and looking at cards for a long time with friends.”
The pandemic boosts online tarot (and its scammers)
Anecdotally, tarot readers say the number of scammers seemed to explode during the Covid-19 pandemic as interest in readings grew and more people were sucked into “WitchTok,” an esoteric niche on TikTok.
The collective anxiety and uncertainty of the pandemic throughout The long-standing trend of declining religious practice in the U.S. coincided with the creation of a boom in alternative spiritual practices that continues today. Moonlight declined to share user numbers but says it maintains a huge waiting list of practitioners who want to join the app to conduct readings.
Amanda Grace Leo, another tarot reader who books readings through Moonlight, said her own following took off during the lockdowns.
“I love TikTok for this reason: I think it has brought some of this mysticism back into the public consciousness,” she said. “It has allowed a new generation to know that there are alternative ways to approach spirituality outside of a religious context.”
Accounts impersonating her on TikTok began spreading rapidly around that time. For more than a year, she reported several impersonators each month. She said the growing popularity of tarot online has been a double-edged sword: It opens the door to scams, but it also brings more success to her and the practice she loves.
How to prevent fraud in the mystical business
Traditionally, if a consumer buys a product and it isn’t delivered or the product they receive is defective, the buyer can dispute the charge with their credit card issuer, but in the case of mystical services like tarot readings (which are already considered suspect by many financial institutions), it can be harder to report a scam. Because of that, victims may be less likely to report it, Baskin said.
“If someone DMs you and says, ‘You have to pay $200 to lift a curse,’ and you do that, how can you prove later that it’s a scam?” she said.
The Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. government agency charged with consumer protection and fraud prevention, declined to comment on the growing problem of scams in the spiritual and mystical space, and has not issued any warnings on the matter.
Scolnick said she was thrilled when Moonlight reached out to her to be one of the first readers onboarded to the platform, and she now does readings exclusively through the site, with no issues with fraud. She said the rooms replicate a real-life tarot experience, with cards that can be maneuvered to face a client and a number of different decks designed by artists. Moonlight also offers features that couldn’t be found in an offline reading, such as the ability for clients to click on a card to get a brief description of its meaning and recordings to watch repeatedly.
There is a wide range of mysticism among tarot practitioners. While some readers may use the cards as divination tools (to predict a client’s future), many use the symbolism and deeper meaning found in the cards to uncover subconscious truths.
“I see tarot as a divinatory tool, but at the same time, I’m not a reader who says I know something about you that you don’t know about yourself on some level,” Scolnick said. “A reading is just a space to have honest conversations with someone. The magical elements of a reading, to me, are undeniable, but they’re not always the ones that rule.”
