TEXAS — A husband and wife from Texas have been arrested for an alleged years-long scheme that conned at least three victims out of $2.5 million.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, a 47-year-old woman advertised “psychic services” online under the fake name Jolene Travis.
Her posts were designed to “attract people who were struggling with romantic or personal problems: people experiencing divorce, death of a loved one or feelings of isolation,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Jolene Travis” allegedly told victims that she could perform readings and rituals to determine the cause of their misfortune.
In this scheme, she would earn their trust and then tell the victims that their misfortune was tied to money or finances. She told these victims if they sent her the money in question, she could “cleanse” it and break the “curse,” according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, the woman promised to return the money to them after the “cleansing process.”
She told her victims that she had family money and didn’t need any of theirs, and would return small amounts occasionally to keep the trust, according to the indictment.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, their returns were less than 6% of the total money taken over the span of three years.
The victims would give money and gold to be “cleansed,” but never saw it come back to them. She was able to convince one victim to sell their home and to settle their divorce for a lump sum instead of alimony payments because the divorce was a part of the “bad energy,” according to the indictment.
In total, the 47-year-old and her 44-year-old husband took $2.5 million from three victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The indictment said that her husband helped manage the accounts.
The pair are facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud and four counts of mail fraud.
They could face up to 20 years in prison, if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“This case is yet another demonstration of how fraudsters exploit vulnerable situations to gain their victims’ trust, even creating fake identities in an attempt to evade accountability and further schemes that last years,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “The schemes may change, but the greed driving them does not. The FBI and our partners will follow the money to unravel these scams and ensure the conspirators responsible face the consequences of their actions.”
The woman was also previously convicted for psychic fraud in Florida and Texas.
According to the indictment, she was in prison and co-conspirators took on the “Jolene Travis” alias to keep the fraud going while she was incarcerated.
If you think you were a victim, you can report the crime here.
KIRO 7 is not naming the suspects because they have yet to be charged.