WASHINGTON, D.C. — It's a scam that lured in tens of thousands of people. The con artist was a self-proclaimed psychic and the victims thought they were buying happiness.
Self-proclaimed psychic promised people happiness if they bought this medallion for $40.
If you could be guaranteed good fortune by purchasing a medallion for just $40, would you buy it?
One fraud victim, who didn't want to be identified, along with millions of other people dd. They paid Destiny Research Center and, specifically, Maria Duval.
"You just hold on to it and you say this prayer every day the same time for 40 days and you should have happiness," the woman recalled Duval telling her about the medallion.
But, that wasn't what happened.
"Very, very cheap mass produced trinkets from China and Hong Kong. The purchase prices would be anywhere from .10 cents to $1.50 or less. They were bought by the tens of thousands," explained U.S. Postal Inspector Clayton Gerber.
Enevelopes for Maria Duval collected by postal inspectors.
Postal inspectors got one month's worth of envelopes from victims of this scam. It was more than 30,000 pieces of mail.
"At about $40 a piece, that would be about $1.2 million dollars that we have saved for the victims. Over the course of the year, that would be something in the neighborhood of $15 million dollars," Gerber said.
The letter did have a small note on the side stating:
"It was almost impossible for me to read and the elderly victims who received these solicitations surely would have been unable to read it," Gerber said.
Most of the victims of this scam were elderly.
"100,000 solicitations a week. It’s hard to have a personal connection with 100,000 people each week. I think that surpasses any volume of Facebook friends you might have," Gerber said.
"I’m embarrassed to say that I was taken by it because I know you can’t get something for nothing. But, the way they come at you and they get real personal with you and you think, 'Okay, maybe they do know something, and maybe I will kind of like take a chance,'" the fraud victim said.
Postal inspectors began investigating the case after thousands of complaints, they then filed an administrative action with the courts to cease Maria Duval from sending this type of mail again.