Psychic swindler: How police brought down a million dollar fortunetelling fraud

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - For nearly two decades, a Lake County woman ran simultaneous scams out of her Mentor psychic parlor and got away with it.

That is, until her house of tarot cards finally came crashing down.

Gina Miller, a self-proclaimed psychic, was convicted of stealing more than a million dollars in cash, jewelry and cars from her clients, but investigators believe she swindled more than $5 million from at least a dozen victims.

So what did she tell people to convince them that she had the power to reverse curses, and to change the fate of her clients and their loved ones? And how did she persuade them to hand over thousands of dollars at a time?

19 News reporter Jen Picciano shares the secret audio recordings of Miller with an undercover officer from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation in a new episode of the Dark Side of The Land true crime podcast.

In the first of a two-part series on the fortunetelling fraudster, listeners will hear from one of Miller’s victims as she explains how she was reeled in.

The episode also features interviews with Mike Malainy, the now-retired Mentor Police detective who dedicated months of work to building a case against Miller, and Bob Nygaard, a private investigator and psychic fraud expert who explains how nearly every one of these self-proclaimed psychic operates.

“The Psychic Swindler: Inside a Million Dollar Fortunetelling Fraud” is available now on all major podcast platforms, including SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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