How many offers each year do you get in the mail from some psychic-astrologer or astrologer you never heard of before? Have you ever bothered to read their spin or perhaps actually wasted a few bucks to get their horoscopes, advice, lucky lotto numbers, worthless birthstone, talisman or other trinkets which you can keep even if you are not satisfied with whatever they send you for $15, $20, $25 or more? And have you ever tried getting a refund? (They play the odds that you won't even bother trying because the refund probably wouldn't be worth the trouble to get.)
How did they get your name and address? Probably from mailing lists they purchase from some publishers of psychic or bottom-drawer astrology magazines, other mass junk-mail marketers, or even from certain of your friendly online so-called psychics, phony-baloney astrologers and other fly-by-night "futurists." Or, you may get their offers just because you have a mailing address -- or an email address on the search engines of the internet! If you live in a rural area or a part of a city of lower-medium to low-income families you are much more likely to be a "target." Their market research demographics tell them where recipients are most likely to be unwise enough to send money for an implied "promise" of improving their lot in life by some "guru" who seems to suggest they can make this a reality, but only if the order (and MONEY) is sent promptly.The Offer Seems So Personal
- Expect your name to appear several times. (Computer programs are so clever!)
- No doubt there will be a picture of this wonderful "psychic," "psychic-astrologer," or "astrologer." This person may or may not exist and, if so, possibly not with the same name. (Sometimes, these mass junk-mailers continue to use the same picture and name of a person long-since deceased.)
- The letter may even state that this "person" has been studying your horoscope. (How could they when they don't even know your birth sign, to say nothing of your year, date, time and place of birth. If they knew this information, why would they request you write in this data on the order form!)
- If they use the "studying-your-horoscope" lie, or even if they don't, you can bet they will say you have some wonderful and troubling situation (always money, love and/or sex!) coming up about which you must know in advance -- and, of course, you will if you send your order (and MONEY).
- What you will get in return is some cheap computer print-out of a few pages of psychobabble and general "bs."
- Expect also a bit of 'bait-and-switch.' You may be told there is so much more you need to know that you should order the "deluxe" (or whatever they name it) report. But of course it will be slightly more expensive -- at least double what you already paid.
- If the first bait-and-switch works, expect another even-more "deluxe," and much more expensive 'con.'
- Bottom line: You will be wasting both your time and money with these junk-mail fortune-tellers.
