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A deal with the devil : the dark and twisted true story of one of the biggest cons in history

2018

Call Number:	364.163 ELLIS
Format:	Book
Author:	Ellis, Blake.
Title:	A deal with the devil : the dark and twisted true story of one of the biggest cons in history / Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken.
Edition:	First Atria Books hardcover edition.
Publisher, Date:	New York, NY : Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2018. ©2018
Description:	xiii, 290 pages ; 24 cm
Summary:	"In this spellbinding true story, a pair of award-winning CNN investigative journalists track down the mysterious French psychic at the center of an international scam targeting the elderly and emotionally vulnerable, resulting in an expose of one of the longest running cons in history. While investigating financial crimes for CNN Money, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken were intrigued by reports that elderly Americans were giving away thousands of dollars to mail-in schemes. With a little digging, they soon discovered a shocking true story. Victims received personalized letters from a woman who, claiming amazing psychic powers, convinced them to send money in return for riches, good health, and good fortune. The predatory scam has continued unabated for decades, raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone--with investigators from all over the world unable to stop it. And at the center of it all--an elusive French psychic named Maria Duval. Based on the five-part series that originally appeared on CNN's website in 2016 and was seen by more than three million people, A Deal with the Devil picks up where the series left off as Ellis and Hicken reveal more bizarre characters, follow new leads, close in on Maria Duval, and connect the dots in an edge-of-your-seat journey across the US to England and France. A Deal with the Devil is a fascinating, thrilling search for the truth and is long-form investigative journalism at its best"-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects:	Swindlers and swindling. Victims of crimes -- Psychology. Crime -- History -- 21st century. True crime stories.
Other Author:	Hicken, Melanie.
Notes:	$26.00 Includes bibliographical references (pages 284-290).
Contents:	The journalists -- The promises -- The scam -- The victims -- The address -- The mysterious psychic -- The psychic sidekick -- The sightings -- The dentist's wife -- The investigators -- The business web -- The Sparks connection -- The whistleblower -- The "mailing genius" -- The bizarre businessman -- The copywriter -- The nucleus -- The windfall -- The trip -- The dusty archives -- The psychic no one sees -- The house -- The sister -- The pot of jelly -- The lover -- The son -- The attorney -- The deal -- The myth -- The responses -- The other psychics -- The checks -- The dark and the strange -- The Romanians -- The childhood friend -- The return to sanity -- The bizarre businessman revisited -- The fading myth -- The irony -- Afterword.
LCCN:	2017055494
ISBN:	9781501163845 9781501163845
Copies Owned:	4
Copies Available:	1
Current Holds:	0

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In 2015, two CNN journalists picked up a piece of junk mail that would obsess them for the next three years. For more than 30 years, a psychic named Marie Duvall sent personalized letters to millions of vulnerable people worldwide, many elderly and friendless or those worried about their financial future. The recipients were convinced to send checks to the psychic, purchasing cheap "luck charms" and being promised a financial windfall in the future. After hearing some victims' tales, the reporters were determined to track down the psychic behind the scam. Wading through layers of shell companies and accomplices, with the help of law enforcement officials whose efforts to stop the scam were stymied by international boundaries, they stumbled toward the woman behind the multimillion-dollar business-but was she really the mastermind? Mail fraud is a frustrating tangle, but the authors do their best to lay it out for readers, and their tales of the shady characters they encounter along the way make for a thrilling adventure. VERDICT This entertaining account expands on a 2016 CNN five-part series and will be enjoyed by lovers of real-life con stories.-Deirdre Bray Root, -formerly with MidPointe Lib. Syst., OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In this meandering true crime account, journalists Ellis and Hicken investigate a decades-long international mail scam that bilked over $200 million from its 1.4 million victims in the United States alone. The mastermind behind it all was an elusive, self-proclaimed psychic who went by the alias Maria Duval and has never been apprehended. The authors, who first wrote about Duval for CNN in 2016, detail the methodology of her scam, which dates to at least the 1980s and involved mailing personalized letters to recipients, whose names and addresses Duval purchased from data brokers. Their investigation leads to a bizarre cast of characters, including a gun-toting U.S. postal inspector hell-bent on shutting down the scam, an alien-worshipping businessman whose companies distributed Duval's mass mailings, and a handful of zany psychics. The book gets sidetracked by frustrating dead ends in the inquiry-a chapter devoted entirely to a psychic named Patrick Guerin, for example, ends abruptly when the journalists receive no reply to one brief e-mail. While the authors never conclusively identify the person behind the Maria Duval alias, they provide an entertaining exposé of an epic episode from the chronicles of consumer fraud. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Summary

In this spellbinding true story, a pair of award-winning CNN investigative journalists track down the mysterious French psychic at the center of an international scam targeting the elderly and emotionally vulnerable, resulting in an exposé of one of the longest running cons in history.

While investigating financial crimes for CNN Money, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken were intrigued by reports that elderly Americans were giving away thousands of dollars to mail-in schemes. With a little digging, they soon discovered a shocking true story.

Victims received personalized letters from a woman who, claiming amazing psychic powers, convinced them to send money in return for riches, good health, and good fortune. The predatory scam has continued unabated for decades, raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone--with investigators from all over the world unable to stop it. And at the center of it all--an elusive French psychic named Maria Duval.

Based on the five-part series that originally appeared on CNN's website in 2016 and was seen by more than three million people , A Deal with the Devil picks up where the series left off as Ellis and Hicken reveal more bizarre characters, follow new leads, close in on Maria Duval, and connect the dots in an edge-of-your-seat journey across the US to England and France. A Deal with the Devil is a fascinating, thrilling search for the truth and is long-form investigative journalism at its best.

Table of Contents

	Cast of Characters	p. xi
Part 1
	The Journalists	p. 3
	The Promises	p. 11
	The Scam	p. 13
	The Victims	p. 21
	The Address	p. 39
	The Mysterious Psychic	p. 47
	The Psychic Sidekick	p. 69
	The Sightings	p. 73
	The Dentist's Wife	p. 83
Part 2
	The Investigators	p. 89
	The Business Web	p. 99
	The Sparks Connection	p. 107
	The Whistleblower	p. 109
	The "Mailing Genius"	p. 113
	The Bizarre Businessman	p. 119
	The Copywriter	p. 127
	The Nucleus	p. 135
Part 3
	The Windfall	p. 143
	The Trip	p. 153
	The Dusty Archives	p. 159
	The Psychic No One Sees	p. 163
	The House	p. 167
	The Sister	p. 173
	The Pot of Jelly	p. 177
	The Lover	p. 181
	The Son	p. 185
	The Attorney	p. 191
	The Deal	p. 195
Part 4
	The Myth	p. 213
	The Responses	p. 217
	The Other Psychics	p. 219
	The Checks	p. 225
	The Dark and the Strange	p. 229
	The Romanians	p. 241
	The Childhood Friend	p. 245
	The Return to Sanity	p. 251
	The Bizarre Businessman Revisited	p. 255
	The Fading Myth	p. 259
	The Irony	p. 263
	Afterword	p. 273
	Acknowledgments	p. 279
	Notes	p. 284

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