“Had a paid astrology reading. Astrologers you shouldn’t trust.” Someone posted that on an astrology forum. On a French legal-help forum, another person asked for help in harsher words: they had been the victim of a psychic scam, with psychological manipulation, fear-mongering and pressure. If you’re typing the same thing now, what’s happening to you has a name. It happens to very clear-headed people, often at a time when everything feels heavy.

A psychic or astrology scam can be spotted by how it works: the way it gets you to pay, to come back, and then to be afraid. Here are its signs, what you can do if you’re already caught in one, and what to compare against what AstroLuma offers.

How much does it actually cost?

The first sign is the price. In a scam, it stays vague until the very end. The session is billed by the minute, over the phone, and nobody tells you how many minutes have gone by. The “first reading free” opens the door to a bill. Or the price climbs along the way: a ritual, a candle, some extra “work” so the prediction turns out better.

A serious service shows you its price before you pay anything, and that price doesn’t move. You know what you’re buying and what you get in return. If you have to ask three times what it costs, or the answer is “it depends on what I see,” you already have your answer.

Why do they keep calling me?

The second sign is the follow-up. One evening a message arrives: “I saw something urgent for you, call me back.” Then another, then a call. On a Quebec forum, someone described their psychic’s last call: they used it to ask whether she was really as good as she claimed.

Follow-ups manufacture urgency, and urgency keeps you from thinking. They often come with a request for secrecy: “Don’t tell your family, they wouldn’t understand.” Someone who pulls you away from the people close to you, to keep you on the phone longer, is telling you a lot about their intentions.

An honest reading lets you come back whenever you feel like it, or never.

When a prediction scares you

The third sign is the hardest to see from the inside: fear. You’re told about a misfortune with a date, a curse on your family, someone who wishes you harm. And only one person could protect you: the one you’re paying. This kind of fear-mongering works because it puts you on hold. For weeks everything looks like a sign, and you call back to find out more.

AstroLuma follows humanistic astrology, the astrology of Dane Rudhyar and Jung’s psychology, which puts no date on any event. It reads your birth chart as a portrait: your needs, your reflexes, what repeats in your life and what you can do with it. It talks about climates and dynamics, and you keep the last word on what they mean. Humanistic vs predictive astrology walks through that difference with a full example.

One simple rule works anywhere: if a reading leaves you more anxious than when you arrived, then sells you the next session to calm you down, it’s worth walking away.

I think I got scammed: what do I do?

First, stop paying, even if they promise everything will be fixed with the next payment. Then:

Manipulation targets people going through grief, a breakup or worry about a child, which means anyone, at some point. It says nothing about your intelligence.

What you’ll find at AstroLuma, for comparison

You don’t have to take our word for it: here is what you can check for yourself.

Start with the free birth chart calculator: you see your chart before spending anything. To read it, how to read your natal chart gives you the basics, and your Sun sign is not enough shows what the Moon and the rising sign add.

Frequently asked questions

I was the victim of a psychic scam: can I report it?

Yes. Fraud is a crime, and you can report it to the police. Bring your records: messages, phone numbers, statements. Let your bank know too, so the charges stop.

Is astrology a scam?

On a French forum, someone described it as a gentle scam that, deep down, doesn’t hurt anyone. The calculation of a birth chart can be checked: two serious calculators, with the same data and the same zodiac, give the same chart. The interpretation is open to debate, and you’re the judge of it. The scam starts when the price is hidden, when they keep chasing you, or when they scare you so you keep paying.

Astrologers you shouldn’t trust: how can I tell?

Look before you pay. The price is shown and doesn’t change. Nobody pushes you to call back. The reading talks about you and your patterns, without announcing a dated misfortune.

A psychic predicted a misfortune: should I believe it?

A date attached to a misfortune puts you under strain, and that’s often the point: getting you to come back. Humanistic astrology reads no accident and no dated breakup in a birth chart. If that prediction is keeping you up at night, talk to someone close to you, and don’t pay anything to “lift” it.

A reading that describes you, with a written price

A birth chart describes a terrain: your footholds, your tensions, what keeps coming back. An AstroLuma reading tells you about it from your full chart, with a price you know from the first page.

✦ Read your chart as a portrait, with no predictions — the Adult birth chart · $29.99 USD