Cyprus fortune teller convicted of fraud, jailed

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

NICOSIA, Cyprus - An elderly woman was convicted of fraud Thursday after a Nicosia court ruled she took cash from a man to lift a "deadly spell," using an egg, his briefs and a urine sample.

Hayriye Rezvanoglu, 69, will serve 20 days in prison, court officials said.
The court found that the self-described witch "clearly and shamelessly" exploited Thanos Savvides' "vulnerable psychological and emotional state," and fraudulently obtained 500 Cyprus pounds, the equivalent of $1,243, to lift a spell supposedly cast by his enemies.

...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22133229/


How this belongs in Peculiar Postings, I don't know.

[Zep]

So THAT'S where Sylvia has been holidaying lately! ;)

[Diagoras]

Once again, the legal system in a European country acts way more sensibly than any court here would. What a surprise.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Well, the legality or illegality of woo is a pretty hard question and pretty difficult to implement in practise. There's alot of gray area and woo can't really be treated the same way non-woo cons and scams can.

[ColumbusRyan]

Playing devils advocate here: If someone willingly gives over money like this to a fortune teller or a psychic why feel bad for them? I mean, they are the ones who are stupid enough to spend money on something like that. I mean, how many people waste their money each year on Oxyclean or the Roomba or any other silly thing they sell on the television or the net?

Of course, people who are actually scammed (like those people that offer to bless your money) deserve to go to prison for pulling a robbery).

[Diagoras]

Why feel bad for them? Because people don't consciously choose their beliefs. You can't fault somebody for believing in something wrong. They just haven't been convinced of the truth, probably because they've been exposed to a fair deal of misinformation and they haven't been exposed much to the counterarguments or to critical thinking skills. Think about it. You don't believe the things you do because you sat down and just picked some things to believe in. You believe in things because of the information you have been exposed to.

There are a lot of memes out there that are really well adapted to burrowing themselves into lots of brains even though they have no basis in reality. We are emotional creatures and a lot of time we think emotionally and throw rationality aside; that's just a basic part of human psychology. Blaming people for being infected with bad memes is sort of like blaming people for getting the flu. Sure, there are ways to prevent yourself from getting infected, but you can't really blame the ignorant victims who just didn't know better and besides there's no way to become 100% immune.