All Is Not as It Seems
A quick guide to avoiding the worst of the witchy online scams
One of the hardest things to know when you start looking around online for instruction around the Craft is who's for real and who isn't. There are loads and loads of witches on TikTok and Instagram who are ready to offer you advice on spellcasting, do psychic readings or sell you products. Many of these folks are wonderful. But sadly, there are some who are looking to scam you. They may come at you as themselves, or impersonate other, better known practitioners, hoping you'll pay them top dollar for a "reading" that's coming from a fraudster chatbot.
Books have become a problem too. There have been documented instances of books by legit pagan authors, even really well known authors, being openly plagiarized and then sold on Amazon. Tarot decks especially are often plagiarized by unscrupulous folks who don't want to pay the artists who made the deck. "Books" are also being written almost entirely by an artificial intelligence tool and being published under pseudonyms and again, sold on Amazon, often containing information that is not only wrong, but harmful.
But telling people to stay away from self-published books by authors not using their government names or books that are not longer than 200 pages isn't the simple answer it seems. A lot of great practitioners write shorter, self-published works. Because while it is true that the number of pagan publishing houses is growing, it is often easier for folks to self-publish than it is to get on the docket of a Llwelleyn editor. So distinguishing who's a legit author, legit reader, or legit teacher isn't as simple as anyone would like.
So as someone who might be new to the Craft and to the community, what can you do to protect yourself from fakers and scammers and people who might want to take advantage of you?
Remember that most legit practitioners on social media, particularly Instagram and TikTok, will NEVER reach out to you proactively to tell you they "had a revelation" about you or ask you if you want a reading. If they are that good, they have enough people reaching out to them in their DMs, and so they have zero need to slip into yours. If that's happening, you probably are following a spoof account looking to scam people. ALWAYS make sure when you follow a pro online that you are following their official account. The best way to check that is to go to the website (if they have one) and follow the link to the social accounts they have there. If they don't have a website, you might have to look at secondary clues.
Also, if you do uncover a spoof account, report it -- both to the platform and to the person they are spoofing.
While self-publishing isn't always indicative of an AI-written book, it is true that if the book has been published by a recognized imprint, it's at least guaranteed to have had the benefit of a professional editor's influence over the content. The most recent rundown of pagan publishers I was able to find online was this excellent blog post by Jason Mankey (who is also a knowledgeable human in witch spaces). It IS from 2018, so bear in mind that we've been through a lot and some of the info in this article might be outdated.
Always. Check. Credentials. It helps to be familiar with who the well-known witchy and pagan authors are. If you see a name you've never heard before, check out their footprint in the community, both local and beyond. If they are local to you, see what the owner of the local witch shop and other leaders in their community have to say about them.
Notice what I did above as I recommended Jason's blog? I looked at the date the blog was published. I looked at who wrote it. And It's published on Patheos, which curates its bloggers. Unlike Substack or Medium, which will publish anybody who can fill out a form correctly, Patheos requires you to make an application and be accepted by their editorial staff.
Sure, that might not be the highest bar in the Universe, but it's a step up from nothing at all. That's not to say that people who publish blogs on Substack or Medium are suspect (this blog you’re reading is on Substack, after all), only that you have to maybe ask a few more questions. Like, does this person carry any credentials that are not self-awarded? Has some witchcraft tradition or organization trained them? Does that organization still claim them, and if not, why not? Do they serve your local pagan community in any way? Do they attend or teach workshops at recognized pagan festivals? Have they been a guest on any of the metric fuckton of pagan/witchy podcasts out there? That last one is great because then you can listen to them and get a better sense of whether they can meet your needs as a learner.
While the Jason Mankeys of the world have a pretty big, hard to miss footprint, there are plenty of legit folks who cast a much smaller shadow and are worth learning from. But it's very rare that someone who is a legit teacher doesn't have ANY kind of footprint in their community or online that you can follow up on. Sparse info isn't necessarily a red flag, but none at all very well might be.
Read uncredentialed material alongside credentialed material, and make note if there are significant differences. This is not me saying that something uncredentialed isn't any good unless it sticks within the bounds of what credentialed people have already done. Not at all. New ideas and good Craft come from lots of places. But let's say that you're reading a book by an unknown, hard to locate author on plants that recommends using a healthy chunk of thorn apple or datura as a major ingredient in a tea to stimulate psychic ability. And at the same time you are reading "Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs" by the legendary Scott Cunningham. His work will state point blank that the datura plant, also called thorn apple, is poisonous and should not be ingested. Who do you believe? The mystery person who has no discernible footprint in the witch community, or the guy whose work has been foundational for a whole generation of witches? Oh, and if you look for work by herbalist and badass witch Amy Blackthorn, you'll find an entire book dedicated to potions, teas and other drinkables for magical purposes.
Good craft isn't always incredibly unique. Spells and things like crystal lore and herb properties can be fairly standard. Most of us know how to make a spell jar, and if you don't and go looking on the Internet, you'll find roughly 44 million search results when you Google it, and the first ones will be relevant to what you're looking for. If something is standing in stark opposition to what you can find on the topic in a Google search and it's flying in the face of the advice of leading lights in the Craft, you might want to view it with a gimlet eye.
On the flip side, you might find a blog post on Substack where an author gives you the details of an inventive tea-brewing methodology that you've never heard of before and isn't documented in anyone else's work. You've checked it out and it seems safe, no poisonous ingredients or sketchy pieces of equipment being used in a patently unsafe way. You try it and it works! Congratulations, you've found some great spellcraft.
However, maybe you're reading a blog post and you realize that the brew that's being recommended sounds awfully familiar, and maybe almost word for word identical to something in one of Amy's books, and this author is not crediting Amy for her work. This is plagiarism and at that point, you need to realize that this author is a thief. When you encounter plagiarism the best course of action is to report it to the platform (if it's in a blog) and to the original author of the work.
Beware practitioners who make big promises right out of the gate. One of the things that I like to say a lot is that magic works, and magic helps, but magic can't fix stupid. What I mean by that is leaning too hard into magical solutions before you have tried any of the mundane solutions that are readily available is not going to yield the results you are hoping for. This is why magic (which is effective) is different from magical thinking (which is not). Magical thinking believes that if I make an inspiration board for a new job and just meditate on it for a month I'll get my dream job. Magic is when you send out your resume to a dozen job postings that you are qualified for, and when you get an interview, you carry a lapis lazuli talisman in your pocket that you have charmed to help you speak well in your conversation with the hiring manager. For magic to work, we have to work too.
Scammers and frauds will often make big promises about what they can do for you, what they can protect you from, or what you will be able to do yourself if you agree to engage with them. They make big claims of miracle cures or special powers. They tell you stories that sound fantastical, about spells they have cast and encounters they have had with deities and spirits. They will claim impossible knowledge, the ability to know you better than you know yourself, or show you things that some big anonymous power called "they" don't want you to see. They will claim special relationships with famous and powerful people or entities. In short, they are trying to impress you so you will give them what they want from you -- money, information, followership.
When someone is working really, really hard to extract your time or your attention or your goodwill, be prepared to examine the situation a little more closely. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Generally, I find the most powerful witch in a roomful of witches is not the one telling you how skilled they are or how much they know. They usually aren't even looking for attention at all. If you ask them how and where they learned their Craft, they might tell you, if they think you have a reason to ask and a right to know. By and large they are doing their thing and aren’t really looking for anything from you beyond what most humans want when they are in social situations with other humans — good fellowship and sincere connection. Big talkers who make big claims and want to immediately rope you into big magical things might not be all that they are making themselves out to be. They might be working an agenda that is more about them than about you.
Sometimes the magic is a naked ruse to get to your money. When working with a magical practitioner you don't know, particularly one online, be mindful of the information you provide. They'll ask you your location, so you give them your address. They might ask you for your birthday so they can "calculate your astrological chart." In that context they may also ask the location of your birth. Are the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end yet? They should be. Because all of that information is great for identity thieves who want to impersonate you online.
While it's obviously not great to be taken in by a magical practitioner who doesn't really know how to do effective magic, it's even worse when the person isn’t really a practicioner at all, and is using the situation to steal your identity or set you up (or someone close to you) for a fraud. Over the course of a tarot reading, a skillful manipulator can extract lots of information about your life. Who is in your family, what their names are, and even what they do for a living. They can get information about things you like to do, about your job and your employer. All of this information can be put to great use to impersonate you on a phone call to your employer, or allow them to conduct an email-based scam against your elderly grandmother.
This last one I find myself saying a lot to seekers these days, mostly because I find it is a good prophylactic against forces that would try to take advantage of you: Remember that you, and you alone, are sovereign over your path, and anyone who would try to tell you they know what you need or should do better than you do you should be kept at arm's length.
A lot of us get into the Craft because we want to feel more powerful. For some of us, it is about bolstering a self-esteem that has been battered by abusive parents or spouses, or about claiming empowerment that social structures have not given us. And for some people, it is about feeding their ego by making themselves powerful over others.
Giving respect to a teacher is important, particularly if that person has decades more experience or has devoted countless hours of study to a topic. But respect is not obedience. Honoring an oath you have taken in a dedication ritual is important. But if taking that oath means you no longer have the ability to make your own decisions about some important aspect of your life, you might want to think twice.
I have seen what happens when a teacher undermines their students, when they see the teacher-student relationship as a way to feed their ego as opposed to an opportunity to serve their community. I have seen beautiful and powerful witches stymied in their paths and rendered a shadow of themselves by the work of a toxic teacher. Nothing makes me angrier.
If someone equates loyalty with blind obedience or faith, with infinite tolerance of their bad behavior, they are not playing above board, and you should steer clear. They will not allow themselves to be accountable to you or anyone else, and they will eventually do you wrong and betray you.
Most of us get onto a pagan path because we have issues with authority, and dislike the idea of blind faith. Many of us are a curious mix of credulity and skepticism already. And none of these tips will make your practice immune from scammers, toxic teachers, or anyone else who might want to take advantage of you. The truth is, humans are going to human. Which means we will make mistakes. People who are cautious will still make mistakes. People who are well-meaning will still hurt others, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
I cannot promise that you will never get hurt on this path, and that no one will ever do you dirty. I can only give you some touchstones to reach for to make it less likely and wish you well.
Blessed be, witches. And be careful out there.
Excellent work. Much respect 😎