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A deal with the devil : the dark and twisted true story of one of the biggest cons in history / Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken.

by Ellis, Blake, author.

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New York, NY : Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2018.

Swindlers and swindling.

Victims of crimes -- Psychology.

Crime -- History -- 21st century.

9781501163845 (hardcover) :

1501163841 (hardcover)

xiii, 290 pages ; 24 cm

First Atria Boks hardcover edition.

The journalists -- The promises -- The scam -- The victims -- The address -- The mysterious psychic -- The psychic sidekick -- The sightings -- The dentist's wife -- The investigators -- The business web -- The Sparks connection -- The whistleblower -- The "mailing genius" -- The bizarre businessman -- The copywriter -- The nucleus -- The windfall -- The trip -- The dusty archives -- The psychic no one sees -- The house -- The sister -- The pot of jelly -- The lover -- The son -- The attorney -- The deal -- The myth -- The responses -- The other psychics -- The checks -- The dark and the strange -- The Romanians -- The childhood friend -- The return to sanity -- The bizarre businessman revisited -- The fading myth -- The irony -- Afterword.

"In this spellbinding true story, a pair of award-winning CNN investigative journalists track down the mysterious French psychic at the center of an international scam targeting the elderly and emotionally vulnerable, resulting in an expose of one of the longest running cons in history. While investigating financial crimes for CNN Money, Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken were intrigued by reports that elderly Americans were giving away thousands of dollars to mail-in schemes. With a little digging, they soon discovered a shocking true story. Victims received personalized letters from a woman who, claiming amazing psychic powers, convinced them to send money in return for riches, good health, and good fortune. The predatory scam has continued unabated for decades, raking in more than $200 million in the United States and Canada alone--with investigators from all over the world unable to stop it. And at the center of it all--an elusive French psychic named Maria Duval. Based on the five-part series that originally appeared on CNN's website in 2016 and was seen by more than three million people, A Deal with the Devil picks up where the series left off as Ellis and Hicken reveal more bizarre characters, follow new leads, close in on Maria Duval, and connect the dots in an edge-of-your-seat journey across the US to England and France. A Deal with the Devil is a fascinating, thrilling search for the truth and is long-form investigative journalism at its best"--

"In this spellbinding story, award-winning investigative journalists for CNN Money track down the mysterious French psychic at the center of one of the longest running cons in history--an international mail scam that targets the elderly and emotionally vulnerable"--

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