CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Have you ever driven past a neon sign for a psychic or palm reader and wondered what goes on behind closed doors?

When people walked in to Gina’s Psychic Studio in Mentor, they were often looking for a better life. Instead, many ended up being swindled out of their life savings.

Gina Miller, a self-proclaimed psychic, is currently serving an 8-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 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.

What did Miller say and do to make people believe she had the power to prevent bad things from happening, and even to reverse potential curses on them?

Reporter Jen Picciano digs deep into how easy it can be for people to fall prey to fraudulent fortunetellers in a new episode of the 19 News true crime podcast, Dark Side of The Land.

In this episode, private investigator Bob Nygaard, an expert in psychic fraud, breaks down the psychic scammer’s playbook page by page, including how self-proclaimed psychics like Miller choose their marks.

Podcast listeners will also hear secret audio recording from the undercover sting that ended Miller’s decades-long run, along with an interview with Mike Malainy, the now-retired Mentor Police detective Nygaard said “did one of the best jobs investigating a psychic fraud case that I’ve ever seen in all the time I’ve been doing this.”

Parts one and two of “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.

The Psychic Swindler: Part 1

The Psychic Swindler: Part 2

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