LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Los Angeles Police Department reports a rash of “Blessing” scams targeting the Chinese community and released photos of suspects.
One suspect is a female who claims to be a psychic and offers to tell victims their fortunes for free. Then two additional suspects approach the victims and tell them they had a free reading too and the “psychic” should be taken seriously.
In one instance, the psychic told a victim her son would be killed in a fatal car accident, but to avoid such a tragedy, she should perform a blessing.
The suspect then asks the victim to get cash and valuables together to be blessed by her. This is supposed to be free too.
But once the prayer is performed, the victim’s property is put inside a bag — and once the victim is distracted, the suspect switches the items for bottles of water and the victims are told not to handle the bag for a few days or the blessings will be ruined.
Similar crimes have also been reported in Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel and Temple City.
One such suspect was arrested and prosecuted.