A Canadian woman has been charged with witchcraft, fraud

A 32-year-old Canadian woman has been charged with fraud over $5000 and witchcraft.

Police say the investigation commenced in May of this year when a victim came forward to reveal that they had consulted with a psychic and had been defrauded of an amount totaling over $60,000.

Police learned that the accused was operating an Ontario registered business known as, "Milton Psychic" located on Ontario Street South in the town of Milton.

On Oct. 18, 2018 detectives arrested the accused without incident. Following the woman's arrest, a search warrant was executed on the business and evidence was recovered.

Charged with Extortion, Fraud over $5,000 and Witchcraft – Fortune Telling is Dorie "Madeena" Stevenson of Milton.

Witchcraft and fortune telling fall under section 365 of Canada's criminal code, which define it as pretending to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration, undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or pretending from skill or knowledge of “an occult or a crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found.”

"What we typically see is a tendency for perpetrators to take advantage of persons when they are in their most vulnerable state. Victims are manipulated into believing something bad will happen to them unless they remit cash,” says Sgt. Dave Costantini.

“We even see incidents where victims are required to make purchases and remit these purchases in order to be cleansed. Purchased items include; new cell phones, jewelry, appliances and gift cards. Purchases are made under the assumption these items will be returned, but they never are,” Costantini adds. “When victims cannot be squeezed any longer, the perpetrators rely on the victim's embarrassment in not contacting police.”