Best-selling author says she's a victim of fortune teller family's $40 million fraud

Hard lessons are not often learned the easy way. Just because you can tell a good story -- as in, write best-selling novels -- it doesn't mean that you can tell a good story -- as in, recognize that someone's conning you. 

Belief is a powerful thing. Hope is a powerful thing. Talent is an elusive thing. The ability to control fears and emotions with common sense and rational thinking is elusive, too. A successful novelist learned this, having been caught up in a psychic scam. She reportedly lost around $20 million while trying to relieve her thoughts about a young son, lost in a motorcycle accident, and other things. She was scammed over a period of 20 years, it seems. 

Best-selling romance novelist Jude Deveraux has confirmed she is one of the alleged victims of a Fort Lauderdale family of fortune tellers accused of defrauding clients of $40 million.

"This is an ongoing federal investigation and I am not allowed to say anything to anyone. However, I am allowed to tell you that I wrote about the way the gypsies work — without mentioning that they were gypsies — in my book Scarlet Nights," Deveraux wrote in an email to the Sun-Sentinel. She declined further comment and referred questions to federal authorities.

Deveraux, who writes under a pseudonym, is referred to by her real initials "J.M." in the indictment. Federal investigators said in court Friday that a successful author – who they declined to identify – had lost about $20 million in the scam.

Federal prosecutors accuse the family and its associates, led by matriarch Rose Marks, of preying on vulnerable people during times of personal crisis.

READ MORE: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/aug/23/romance-novelist-jude-deveraux-lost-millions-to/

One's intelligence does not encompass all things, only some things. We are not all wise; no one is wise about everything. This is one among many reasons why people need each other.


- Jon

Posted via email from Jon Osterholm :: WMBC :: posterous