Whatever Happened To Miss Cleo?
You couldn’t watch television in the late-1980s, early-1990s without seeing those ubiquitous Miss Cleo psychic readings commercials. “Call me now!” she’d crow.
It was obvious to anyone with a working brain cell that this was a scam, that ‘Miss Cleo’ was no psychic but merely an actress playing a role. But apparently enough viewers were suckered into dialing a phone number that charged by the minute, “I’m slowly searching for the father of your baby,” she says in one spot. The operation took in millions.
In this video entitled MISS CLEO: THE FRAUDULENT PSYCHIC EMPIRE you’ll discover why so many people believed in her, when she appeared on talk shows in character giving out psychic 'advice' to unsuspecting strangers. Television is a powerful medium!
The lady wasn’t even Jamaican, she was born in the US. In reality, Cleo was actually small-time actress Youree Dell Harris who, just before she was cast as Miss Cleo in 1997, scammed a theater out of salaries and was in possession of multiple aliases and IDs.
The Federal Trade Commission filed suit against Psychic Readers Network’s owners, Steven Feder and Peter Stotz, charged in 2002 with deceptive advertising, billing, and collection practices. Ms. Harris, however, was not indicted.
The Psychic Readers Network ultimately scammed their victims out of an estimated $1 billion. They ended up losing hundreds millions of dollars in the FTC suit.
Harris continued her phony Cleo character long after those commercials were shut down, even portraying Miss Cleo in TV ads for General Mills’ French Toast Crunch until the Psychic Readers Network complained, pointing out that they owned the character.
Youree Dell Harris died following a long cancer battle on July 26, 2016. She was 53.
VIDEO
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