Since tarot practitioner Rebecca Scolnick first began reading cards professionally in 2018, she has been impersonated more than 50 times on Instagram. The scams typically follow a similar pattern: someone creates an account that mirrors hers, using a nearly identical username and reposting all of her photos. The scammer then approaches her followers with enticing spiritual messages. “Hello beloved,” they usually begin. “Have you ever had an in-depth psychic reading before?”

Scolnick, who has more than 11,000 Instagram followers, regularly receives messages from her fans saying they have paid for a reading from someone who is not actually her. After years of being inundated with fraudsters and impersonators, she and many tarot readers like her, along with other mystical practitioners, are exhausted and frustrated.

“If you are looking for a tarot reading, it’s very vulnerable – these people are giving their money and energy to let scammers into their personal lives,” Scolnick said. “It just really makes me sick to think that someone might be getting really predatory, horrible ‘advice’ that they paid for from someone that wasn’t me.”

The problem has become so bad – and persisted for so long – that one tarot reader coded her own website as a means of finding a solution. In May 2023, Scolnick joined a new online tarot website, Moonlight, which launched in March 2023 and advertises itself as the first tarot-specific online marketplace. It was founded by product designer, artist, and longtime tarot reader Danielle Baskin in part to address impersonation scams and similar issues, in addition to streamlining the professional tarot space. Scheduling and payment capabilities built into the software lend Moonlight legitimacy in an industry that is not often taken seriously by platforms or regulators.

“It’s a novel concept, but it’s a long time coming,” said Baskin, who has described Moonlight as “SaaS for witches”, referencing “software as a service” companies and products like Salesforce or Figma.

Practitioners say institutional disregard has left them and their clients open to swindlers. Tech companies and tarot readers have had a particularly antagonistic relationship, which the mystics say has exacerbated the risk of scams in their business: in 2021, payment processor Stripe banned “psychic businesses” from using its platform, which barred tarot readers and other occult or spiritual services, many of whom used the payments processor to receive compensation for their work. As a large online payments processor, Stripe provided fraud protection. Tarot readers who had used Stripe switched to peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo and CashApp – the preferred tools of scammers as well. Stripe later reversed its decision, but the policy persists in some jurisdictions using Stripe, including Japan and Mexico.

How a lack of blue checks makes a mess of online tarot reading

Instagram rarely allows self-identified witches or tarot practitioners to be verified – and if it does, it typically requires official identification, which can differ from the practitioner’s handle or public persona. Without a blue checkmark on their profile, practitioners have little ability to distinguish themselves from scammers who build identical accounts, confusing followers. Tarot readers on TikTok face similar problems.

“The biggest issue facing online tarot readers now is just the fight for credibility,” Scolnick said. “You’re always having to prove yourself to be legitimate, whether that’s to a payment processor or to a platform, and having to say, ‘I run a business, and I don’t deserve to have my clients be preyed upon by all of these fraudulent accounts.’”

Moonlight currently has 25 vetted tarot readers available for booking through the site, with readings ranging from $50 to more than $200 per hour. Providers go through a rigorous onboarding process, Baskin said, meeting in person or over video chat to read tarot cards together and get a better understanding of the new provider’s style and practice. Moonlight also reviews applicants’ existing online presence to ensure they are a good fit culturally for the site.

“Many of our professionals have their own communities already and their practice is evolving,” Baskin said. “The four main things we vet for is: compassion, inclusivity, integrity and wisdom.”

In addition to professional readings, the website allows users to play around with virtual tarot decks for free in private chatrooms. Optimized for web browsers but also available on mobile devices, the rooms feature video and audio and can be opened for collaborative readings or used solo.

“The most magical part of tarot is that it’s great for conversations,” Baskin said. “I wanted to recreate the experience of sitting around a table and looking at cards for a long time with friends.”

Pandemic boosts online tarot – and its scammers

Anecdotally, tarot readers say the number of scammers seemed to explode during the Covid-19 pandemic as interest in readings grew and more people were sucked into “WitchTok,” an esoteric niche of TikTok.

The pandemic’s collective anxiety and uncertainty along with the longstanding trend of declining religious practice in the US coincided to create a boom in alternative spiritual practices that continues today. Moonlight declined to share user numbers, but says it maintains a huge waitlist of practitioners wanting to join the app to conduct readings.

Amanda Grace Leo, another tarot practitioner who books readings through Moonlight, said her own following took off around the time of lockdowns.

“I love TikTok for this reason – I think it has brought some of this mysticism back into the public consciousness,” she said. “It has let a new generation know that there are alternative ways to approach spirituality outside of a religious context.”

Accounts impersonating her on TikTok began to spread rapidly around the same time. For more than a year, she was reporting multiple impersonators each month. She said the growing popularity of tarot online has represented a double-edged sword – opening the door for scams but also bringing more success for her and the practice she loves.

How to prevent fraud in the mystic business

Traditionally, if a consumer purchases a product and it is not delivered, or the product received is defective, the buyer could dispute the charge with their credit card issuer, but for mystical services like tarot readings – already regarded as suspect by many financial institutions – claiming a scam has occurred may prove more difficult. Victims may be less likely to report it for that reason, Baskin said.

“If someone DMs you and says, ‘You need to pay $200 to lift a curse,’ and you do it, how can you later prove that’s a scam?” she said.

The Federal Trade Commission, the US government agency tasked with consumer protection and fraud prevention, declined to comment on the growing scam issue in the spiritual and mystical space, and has not issued any warnings on the matter.

Scolnick said she was thrilled when Moonlight approached her to be one of the first readers onboarded to the platform, and now does readings exclusively through the site – with no fraud issues. She said the rooms replicate a real-life tarot experience – with cards that can be maneuvered to face a client and a number of different artist-designed decks. Moonlight also offers features that could not be found in an offline reading, like the ability for clients to click a card for a brief description of its meaning, and recordings for repeat viewings.

There is a wide range of mysticism among practitioners in the tarot world. While some readers may use cards as divination tools – predicting a client’s future – many use the symbolism and deeper meaning found in the cards to uncover subconscious truths.

“I do see tarot as a divinatory tool, but at the same time, I’m not a reader who claims to know anything about you that you don’t know about yourself on some level,” Scolnick said. “A reading is just a space to have honest conversations with someone. The magical pieces of it, to me, are undeniable – but they don’t always run the show.”