The Truth Show BLOG

Faces 280-year sentence for $175 million swindle

SHAM psychic Patrice Runner is looking at a bleak future behind bars after swindling 56 million believers out of $178 million in a cruel mail-order scam! Runner, 57, was convicted on 14 fraud counts and faces up to 280 years in prison!

Lawmen say the greedy grifter sent millions of letters between 1994 to 2014 pretending to be famous psychics Maria Duval and Patrick Guerin, promising vulnerable targets good fortune and happiness — if they coughed up cash! Investigators snitch the pitches were peppered with personalized details and annotations about the recipients purchased from data brokers. Though the mailings appeared handwritten, investigators say they were mass produced so the manipulative mastermind and his four minions — who’ve pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges — could send as many as 50,000 per week!

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the con man and his cronies rented and traded lists of marks with other fraudsters to identify and prey on elderly folks with dementia and others who were financially struggling. One letter promised the recipient’s life “was going to take a turn for the better” — but the person needed to pay $37.50 to learn more in their “astral-clairvoyant forecast!” The DOJ says once gullible victims submitted their first fee — which typically ranged from $5 to $50 — they were often bombarded with hundreds of additional requests for money for more rituals and guidance! Duval and Guerin are real people, but prosecutors say neither was involved in the sketchy shakedown.