Remember Miss Cleo? She was the wildly popular Jamaican psychic and shaman whose infomercial ran on TV from 1997 – 2002. Miss Cleo was the spokesperson for the Psychic Readers Network, which was a pay-per-call psychic reading service charging $4.99 per minute for a “free reading.” In three years, it’s estimated her service took in one billion dollars through 900 numbers but once the Federal Trade Commission stepped in, the company was charged with deceptive advertising, billing, and collection practices. PRN had to cancel $500 million in customer charges and pay a 5 million dollar fine.
It turned out that Miss Cleo’s real name was Youree Harris and she had never been to Jamaica. So the name was fake and so was the accent. But she was good! Before things went awry, Miss Cleo was a guest on my show and did some readings for the audience. Click here to see.