Audiotels & Platforms: clairvoyance, abuses and scams

Possible solutions to see more clearly The possibility of accessing, via the Internet, clairvoyance sites at any time of the day or night has become something so simple and so direct that the number of consumer consultants wishing to calm their existential anxieties has continued to grow in recent years. It is well known that “one person’s misfortune is another’s happiness.” In this particular field of clairvoyance, businessmen feeling no scruples about exploiting human distress, anticipated with the usual skill of crooks the rise in power of this phenomenon not with the philanthropic aim of helping people in difficulty but rather because of the extraordinary prospects of gain that this distress guaranteed them. For example, on its home page Wengo proudly displays: “since its creation until August 29, 2012, 1,618,976 consultations were counted and 1,615 consultations for the single day of August 29, 2012”. Consumer consultants belong to all social classes and all professions, none are spared. If we multiply the number of consultations by their cost per minute, which ranges between 2.80 and 7 euros depending on the indicator, we can easily imagine the enormous turnover achieved by these audiotel sites. It should be noted that in general it is the management of the site which collects the price of the consultation and that it only passes on a modest part to the clairvoyants by granting them advantages if they manage to retain customer loyalty. (Ex: in particular when the client calls back within 30 days). The temptation is then strong for the clairvoyant to make predictions of convenience which will encourage the client to call back or to consult other clairvoyants when the predictions announced are not carried out within the indicated time frame. So in recent years a multitude of platforms have appeared on the internet offering you the opportunity to consult one of their psychics, presenting them as “highly qualified and experienced”, or even calling them “experts”. These audiotel platforms and sites, attractive in their presentation, easy to access and giving the appearance of total transparency, are particularly attractive for people who are struggling to live, going through a period of crisis like everyone else (isolation, illness, abandonment) wondering about their future or any other existential question…….. In the most often vain and chimerical hope of being able to find relief from their anxieties and their uncertainties of the moment, these fragile people will be in a few seconds and a few clicks put in contact with so-called mediums, clairvoyants, tarot readers, etc…. In the vast majority of cases these are in fact pseudo clairvoyants who have no competence in the matter nor in the so-called occult spiritual practices to which they refer but who on the other hand have the art and the manner to put their client in confidence and in a state of psychological dependence through illusory predictions consistent with their expectations. Failure to fulfill the promises made within the announced deadlines can only encourage the consumer to call back the clairvoyant or to consult another to see if the predictions are confirmed. From then on the process of addiction is set in motion. The time spent with the psychic is not measured by the client whose only objective is to find a solution to calm their anxieties. ThereThe corresponding final bill most often exceeds the financial means of the consumer, which reactivates and increases anxiety in addition to the shame of having allowed themselves to be manipulated and of having to reveal their situation to loved ones. Even if on their personal file most of the clairvoyants registered on these platforms state loudly and clearly that they are not being complacent, nothing allows those who plan to consult to judge this. The system of rating or customer opinion which must be carried out in a very short period of time does not offer sufficient perspective to judge the quality of the service and the veracity of the predictions about the future. The number of complaints filed by consultants about the practices of certain clairvoyant mediums or pseudo clairvoyants is constantly increasing, in proportion to the growing number of consultations. These complaints reveal that on certain sites the status of expert is completely usurped and that they are in fact salespeople infiltrated into the world of clairvoyance in order to defraud people in distress with complete impunity. The INAD, a non-profit association specializing in the defense of consumers who are victims of the actions of unscrupulous practitioners, has until now been the only organization to take on the defense of the “defrauded” consumer. Given the very significant increase in complaints, it is becoming more and more difficult for it to assume this role alone. It is urgent that the public authorities (in the same way as they intervened to regulate consumer credit in order to protect the consumer from credit organizations or to fight against sectarian aberrations: MIVILUDES), take over and intervene to clean up and regulate a profession which today, and in the absence of any control, is the delight of crooks. In the case that interests us, this is clearly a public service mission in which the State must not lose interest. As it currently stands, no regulations allow the process described above to be blocked upstream and most often force the complainant, in the absence of an amicable agreement under the intervention of a mediator such as the INAD, to resort to a legal procedure which is always uncertain in its outcome, without taking into account the costs and fees of a lawyer which must necessarily be resorted to and which most complainants are not able to assume. In the absence of binding regulations on the obligations of the managers of audiotel clairvoyance platforms and sites, it would at the very least be moral to facilitate the pursuit of civil or criminal liability for those who first benefit financially from this gigantic scam. However, this is not the case. If it is relatively easy to seek the criminal liability of a clairvoyant, medium, tarot reader, etc. working on his own behalf on the basis of clairvoyance fraud, the abuse of weakness and vulnerability, calling into question the criminal or even civil liability of the directors of clairvoyance platforms and audiotel sites turns out to be much more complex and they know it well. This difficulty is due to the specificity of each case which prohibits the laying down of general rules and which in the search for liability implies analyzing on a case-by-case basis the nature of the contractual or non-contractual links which exist between the various persons involved. (consultant, clairvoyant, audiotel site management). It is particularly suitableto ask the following questions, the burden of proof always falling in all cases on the complainant 1° what is the nature of the link existing between those responsible for the platform and the clairvoyant, medium or other…… registered on the site If it is possible to demonstrate the existence of a relationship of subordination between them, the managers can be declared civilly responsible for the actions of their servant and therefore required to compensate the victim as such. This subordination link can be characterized by various elements which are not cumulative but must be sufficient to characterize this link. Among these elements we could notably retain: the perception by management of the cost of the consultation and the fact that it determines the conditions for retrocession of the price by granting advantages to those who build customer loyalty, keeping the accounts the unilateral setting of working conditions and hours (advantage to those who work nights), anything which demonstrates a power of direction, surveillance or sanction, (ranking of clairvoyants, special congratulations, publicity made in their favor, etc.) As stated above, all of this requires a case-by-case analysis. Recourse to a lawyer therefore appears essential to untangle the legal knots of each case. The fees charged most often discourage carrying out the procedure further. In the event that this relationship of subordination is retained, the labor code applies and conflicts existing between the clairvoyants and the site management fall under industrial tribunal jurisdiction. 2° With whom did the consumer consultant contract? With the indicator himself or with the site management? We can think, (but without certainty) that even if the clairvoyants themselves determine the price of their consultations, the link of subordination remains real since it is in reality the managers of the site who collect the sums, distribute them in accordance with their own pricing conditions, this distribution varying according to the performance of the clairvoyant, his availability during off-peak hours, etc…. It may also be due to the fact that these sites also offer year-round packages under the pretext of saving money to better retain customers. Not to mention the numerous requests and advertisements sent via the internet or by SMS using false tarot studies, all identical regardless of the consumer client but presenting for the recipient a certain character of plausibility because the information (in particular first names) given during a previous consultation, even free, is reused. Under these conditions, we could rightly consider that the real contractor of the consumer consultant is not, as one would be tempted to believe, the psychic but rather the management of the site. The responsibility of management could be directly sought in the context of common law contractual liability, in particular for defects in consent and deception regarding the substantial qualities expected of the psychic consulted presented by the management of the site as “highly qualified and experienced, or as an “expert” in the matter, when in reality no verification of his skills was carried out when he registered on the site. The sanction for such action is the nullity of the contract with restitution of the sums paid and damages. It seems to me morequestionable to be able to directly incur the criminal liability of those responsible for the site, as they are not the direct perpetrators of the fraud or the abuse of weakness, the simple deception on the asserted skills of the clairvoyant cannot in itself constitute the offense of fraud. These observations are made without reservation……. They demonstrate the complexity of carrying out a legal procedure and its hazards with regard to current legislation, They are campaigning for upstream regulation: This is how we could demand: 1 – The issuance of a professional card only to legally declared practitioners, which would have the advantage of being able to locate them geographically, 2 – The creation of a specific department, similar to MIVILUDES, for the control, surveillance, census of practitioners of the divinatory arts and practices or mancies exercised in the profession. 3- the obligatory signature, under penalty of nullity leading to the restitution of the sums paid, of a contract for any consultation on the same site, whether unique or renewed, the amount of which would be greater than 300 euros even if these consultations are carried out by several clairvoyants on the site, this contract must specify the purpose of the consultation and the price applied 4- that professionals declared “expert” or presented as “highly qualified or experienced” are held to an obligation of result whatever the amount of the consultation as long as dated predictions have been made, 5- that the burden of proof that the practitioner registered on the site has the skills of an “expert” in the subject or that he is “highly qualified or experienced” falls on the management of the site who must, under penalty of automatically incurring personal liability*, be able to justify having carried out all useful checks as to the real abilities of this practitioner. These are just a few suggestions and do not exclude any others. We can think that if even only a few of these measures were implemented, they would scare away many self-proclaimed pseudo-psychics, thereby limiting abusive practices and further reducing the scandalous turnover achieved by the management of audiotel sites. Mary B. *<a href="http://inad.info/blog/presse-ecrite/377-audiotel-abus-de-faiblesse-et-dr">http://inad.info/blog/presse-ecrite/377-audiotel-abus-de-faiblesse-et-dr</a>

A word to the readers

Comments

2 comments

Anonymous 24 January 2014

Votre article fort louable amène différents types de d&#39éclaircissements : concernant Wengo les voyants sont testés à leur demande d&#39entrée sur leurs dons de télépathe et non sur les prédictions ( c&#39est évidemment impossible) , ensuite la société récupère 80% voire plus du chiffre d&#39affaires du voyant : cet exemple ne vaut pas pour tous les sites néanmoins. Concernant la datation certain(es) client(e)s vous demandent à quel jour et à quelle heure le texto va arriver ou bien le mail et si vous ne répondez pas c&#39est que vous n&#39êtes pas médium....L&#39appel masqué était-il de X ou de Y ou du pape ???? Vous ne savez pas : quelle nullité ; alors de guerre lasse vous faites de la complaisance sans forcément faire tourner le compteur mais pour que la personne raccroche. Le problème est que les gens veulent des dates au sens de jour/mois/année et en faire une obligation de résultat me semble hasardeux .

mr gaudet 29 June 2014

bonjour je suis bien embêté avec le cabinet cosmospace qui a la suite d'un forait que je pensais bloqué je me retrouve avec un dépassement de plus de 200€ hors il me restais 20 minutes mais absorber par la communication et non prévenu par la voyante je me retrouve avec ce dépassement que je trouve anormal. ce si me réveil car étant ds une période de fragilité j ai fait beaucoup appelle a eu, mais une chose qui ma m'aider c'est que je recevais régulièrement des textos nous avons une révélation important a vous faire appeler nous... ou le service par texto qui m'envoyait le même type de texto, conclusion dans ce moment de faiblesse je me suis retrouvé avec des facture de 200 a 300€ de téléphone ainsi que des forfaits de voyance de 750e plus des consultations !!!!! moi qui avais des soucis financés je me suis retrouvé dans un gouffre. je réalise maintenant qu'il on bien profiter de mon moment de faiblesse et je trouve cela inadmissible de profité de gens au plus mal car se sont des proie facile. j ai eu un refus de prélèvement pour leur forfait puis un autre et des que ma carte a été débloquer il on tout retirer d'un coup !!! près de 700€ conclusion je ne peu me nourrir ce moi si et ni payer les frais de route pour mon travail!!!! que puis je faire car je vais entamer une procédure contre eux car je l'ais eux au téléphone et je me retrouve a être un homme de mauvais fois qui savais très bien se qu'il fessait !!!

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