Calling a psychic hotline: what's the catch / consequences?

If you are lonely you can call one just to talk to someone..

Why choose one off live TV? TV ads, especially late-night ones, I am extremely skeptical about, and it seems like an utter mismatch for honest psychic/intuitive folks. At the very least, a big part of the money would be going to the company arranging the service and TV advertising.

I know people who could recommend people, so I’d use my own network. They can work remotely over the phone, but I’d prefer to see someone in person.

I can only speculate; I have no direct experience and never will have.

First, you will give away more information than you intend to and more than you think you have given. I know this from someone who has done professional cold readings posing as a psychic. His stories were stunning.

Second, your phone number will be in the possession of someone who knows that you’re a person who will call a phone psychic. That alone is too much personal information to give a stranger, never mind the other details you will inadvertently disclose. I would expect that there are more ways to use that information than you and I can think of, and none of it will be to your benefit. Especially paired with a credit card number.

Anyone who advertises (anything, anywhere) expects to make more money from it than the advertising costs them, even if they can never directly correlate it. Just for the sake of it, why don’t you find out what it costs to run an ad in that time slot on that station? Call the station and ask for advertising rates and see what you find out. That might give you the start of an idea of how profitable an enterprise this is. Just as a data point.

My ex, and I went to a palm reader once, for fun. The “psychic” gave us explicit instructions not to share our readings. We broke that promise…. We had nearly identical readings. Most about us having x amount of kids, and making important decisions, but reading the fine print.

We are NOT together anymore. And neither of us has even one child. Well, that I know of…

You would get scammed.
If there really were “psychics”, people that can tell the future, then all the lotteries out there would be one by the same handful of people, over and over again, with a 100% success rate.

Am I missing something? The most obvious consequence is that you are out a few bucks for a useless service. If this does not worry you then do it.

Some of the fine print is first call free and 3.99 per minute after, from what I hear.

I went to a psychic once for fun with my older brother who looks nothing like me. The psychic thought we were a couple and talked about us getting married, having kids, being together for years to come. As we were leaving my brother said oh and this is my sister. The psychic looked shocked.

You might end up paying $3 to $5 per minute while the “psychic” strings you along. There are other pay numbers besides the obvious “900” numbers.
They don’t need to ask for your credit card. They charge you through your phone company!

There is no such thing as “psychics” but there are swindelers who claim to be. The risk is exposing yourself to those types of people who would likely scam you in multiple ways.

There are cons out there as predators.
Check references .
For every good reader their are thousands of scammers.
TV mediums I don’t trust as if real they offer free services not paid as once money is introduced there goes the credibility.

What @Jeruba says, especially as it seems that she read the details and is answering your real question.
The getting of the phone # (and very likely your name and location) is too good a start on outstanding data collection for me to be comfortable with.

“But what are the consequences of calling one of those hotlines?”

A high phone bill.

They’re gonna take your money because it’s all BS.

Here is info from the US FCC about Pay per call services.. (Federal Communications Commission)

“Toll-free numbers, such as 800, 888 and 877, can also be used for pay-per-call services, including certain directory services or services for which users have a prior payment or subscription arrangement. ”

Scammers figure you will think the 800, 888, and 877 number is a free call. You get the bill a month later.