Psychics and Missing People

(Kelly, did you change your avatar? It looks like you're sporting a clown nose like in Penn & Teller's book "How to Play in Traffic" pages 27-33 referring to Tom Mullica's idea. I like it.)
 
Kelly,

Is there a website where people can go that tells us the legitimacy of a missing persons foundation. My dad got a call from one the other day, and turned them down because he assumed that it was a scam (he doesn't remember the name). He lives with his uncle who is in his 80's, has alzheimers, and is on all the lists.
 
Gr8wight said:
Nice to see. I sent the station an e-mail thanking them for making a full and honest report. Maybe some positive reinforcement will help.
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Thank you for emailing them. I certainly agree about the reinforcement. My thought about the article in general was that in there was nothing new in the case, they were looking for anything at all that would be allowed by their manager to run a story again. It had been a couple of weeks since the last article. Regardless of why they ran the story, I am sure glad they just didn't leave it hanging (in regards to the psychic "tip") like most of them do.

BPScooter said:
(Kelly, did you change your avatar? It looks like you're sporting a clown nose like in Penn & Teller's book "How to Play in Traffic" pages 27-33 referring to Tom Mullica's idea. I like it.)
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Hi BPScooter,

The change is just a temporary one. It's an inside joke from some of us Humor Forum regulars. I have no idea who Tom Mullica is, but glad it's seen as humorous by those outside of the actual joke. :)
 
CptColumbo said:
Kelly,

Is there a website where people can go that tells us the legitimacy of a missing persons foundation. My dad got a call from one the other day, and turned them down because he assumed that it was a scam (he doesn't remember the name). He lives with his uncle who is in his 80's, has alzheimers, and is on all the lists.
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Hello,

There is no such site. I wish there was, but I think there would be legal ramifications for the publisher.

There is a group of orgs who form a membership somewhat like a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" for missing persons orgs, however, one was given the boot for a violation of ethics, so they're not immune to having a bad apple among them. Joining orgs are highly scrutinized before being allowed in. In this case, perhaps this org had been in a long time before their troubled behavior began.

I know of groups who have claimed to be a 501 c 3 and were not. It is possible they had submitted their ap to the IRS and were awaiting approval, but they had no business claiming that ahead of time. I also know of real orgs with ethical issues, anything from misuse of money to divulging sensitive case info.

There was a man in either MI or MN who had an org and was busted for scamming. He had those lucite money containers placed in businesses all over and just pocketed the money. He never performed any of his promised services and was not even qualified to do the work. His org was more safety/teen issues based, if I recall, rather than missing persons. The point is, however, that I have no doubt that this sort of scam and telephone donation scams go on all of the time.

None of the orgs I know solicits over the phone. If your dad ever gets one of those calls again, see if you can get him to get whatever info he can from them. I would be glad to at least tell you enough that you understand that it's either a "green light" situation, or something else.

There are hundreds of orgs in this field. Generally, I have heard of most of them, but may not neccesarily know the persons running the org.

Here is a place at the IRS to search for orgs so that you at least know they are a 501 c 3: http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78

On our resources page, we list the orgs we have established strong relationships with that we know are completely legitimate: http://www.projectjason.org/resources.html

I sincerely hope that no one is doing a phone scam using missing persons, but nothing is sacred to scammers. :(
 
I received a phone call the other night on my home phone from a woman who said she wanted to help me (for free) with my son's case. She had left a message earlier in the day claiming that she had questions about my org, which was not the case. When she prefaced her intro with comments like "wanting to help us" and "assuring you I am not crazy", I knew it was going to be "one of those calls", which I had not had to deal with in a very long time. This woman had not seen my blog, as I found out later in the conversation, so she was not aware of our position when it comes to things paranormal in relation to missing persons.

I believe that because of what I have learned here and in sharing our stories, I was able to handle this phone call in a new way. I remained calm and did not become upset or angry at this woman.

I know little about divining, other than it's a stick finding water. I knew that people now say you can find missing persons by divining, which seems pretty ludicrous to me.

The woman began by telling me that she came within 100 yards of finding a missing couple by using this method. She said she could not go further because it was on private property, and she didn't want to get in trouble for trespassing. It's a long story, but she had some knowledge of a person involved in the disappearance beforehand that led her to this site. I questioned her on this and pointed out that she did not really find them because she was 100 yards away and she had pre-knowledge. To top it off, she never told law enforcement because of the "they'll think I'm crazy" bit. So, when they found the bodies of the couple on the property, she self-claimed success. She could not argue with me when I pointed out the 3 facts: pre-knowledge, 100 yards away, and lack of confidence in the answer which led to not reporting it and no real proof it ever happened.

I admitted I did not know much about divining other than the water and stick system. I asked how one finds missing persons with this method, and she mentioned "with a copper wire". I said: "A copper wire can find missing persons?" I asked her numerous questions about instances she knew of wherein this worked, and she had none. She only had her own set of "facts" that came from other diviners. I came get her to admit that the whole premise did sound nutty. I did this in a very gentle manner. She was still not convinced.

As she claimed it is a "gift from God", I launched into a discussion of Christian beliefs in regards to using supposed paranormal "gifts". I gave her numerous examples of Sylvia Browne's antics. I also spoke to her about the hurt and pain caused to families of the missing by persons making this claims, not to mention the wasted resources. A few times during the conversation, she started to cry. I remained calm and assured her that I did not think she was a bad person, but just misguided. She apologized to me several times.

She still would not quite let go of it. I told her she could take her stick and find water all she wanted to, but that she'd better not claim to find missing persons and contact other families. I suggested that she find a huge property with many hiding places, and to have a person hide on the property and then see if she could find them, having neutral witnesses along. I told her not to do this just once, but numerous times. She said that was a good idea and that she would think about doing that.

I again reiterated the pain caused to families who go through agony because of their situation in general, but are then placed in an additional pain.wrenching situation for no reason and with no results. I did not hold back on this.

I told her to go read my blog, and that I sincerely hoped she would learn something more from it and that she would never make another phone call like this again. Again, I kept my voice calm and purposely lowered it to sound "comforting". Funny that I should have been in the reverse position.

She cried and apologized again, and then she thanked me and said that she was grateful I listened to her and that she had learned something. I felt she was sincere, but I also realize she might have been paying some lip service out of guilt.

It was interesting and I was pleased for myself that it had no ill effect on me.
 
Kelly - SAPS is in the process of contacting mediums for help finding a missing person. We're uploading all of their responses so everyone can see them. If you've come across any likely candidates who may want to contribute, please let me know :)
 
Remie, why are you encouraging these people? It's already been documented that this is a waste of precious time, and considering how little time there is from the time someone vanishes until they're potentially found alive, why would you do this?

No one needs a database of psychics. We need them to grow the f*** up, realize it's not always about them, and start doing things that actually help find the missing, like putting up posters, or manning phone lines. They need to quit stealing money, energy, and precious time from those who are seeking the lost.
 
Kelly said:
It was interesting and I was pleased for myself that it had no ill effect on me.
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When you get to heaven, I would not be surprised if you're allowed one free dessert topping for your kindness to this woman.
 
Hi, total digression, the clown-nose joke I referred to is to glue a little baby red foam clown nose to your drivers license. Hand it to whoever asks for it, and while they look down at the picture, sneakily stick a real clown nose on and when they look up... well... you look just like the picture! P&T claim it works wonders. Tom Mullica does a one-man Red Skelton tribute show in Branson currently, does all the characters and everything.
 
RemieV said:
Kelly - SAPS is in the process of contacting mediums for help finding a missing person. We're uploading all of their responses so everyone can see them. If you've come across any likely candidates who may want to contribute, please let me know :)
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HI,

I looked over your webpage and what you are doing. I'm not going to solicit psychics for any purpose. I do not want them coming my way for any reason. I am quite content that the blog seems to have scared them away. I don't have time to deal with them. My case work comes first.

If, however, one should coincidentally contact me in the meantime, I will send them your way with my typical "win the million and then come back" statement. I will post more about this on your thread.

Roadtoad said:
Remie, why are you encouraging these people? It's already been documented that this is a waste of precious time, and considering how little time there is from the time someone vanishes until they're potentially found alive, why would you do this?

No one needs a database of psychics. We need them to grow the f*** up, realize it's not always about them, and start doing things that actually help find the missing, like putting up posters, or manning phone lines. They need to quit stealing money, energy, and precious time from those who are seeking the lost.
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I agree that we don't need to give them any more links and fame of any sort. The outcome of her project will be interesting. I will post more about that on her thread.

Loss Leader said:
When you get to heaven, I would not be surprised if you're allowed one free dessert topping for your kindness to this woman.
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Aw, that's very sweet of you to say. If I do make it, I will choose hot fudge!

BPScooter said:
Hi, total digression, the clown-nose joke I referred to is to glue a little baby red foam clown nose to your drivers license. Hand it to whoever asks for it, and while they look down at the picture, sneakily stick a real clown nose on and when they look up... well... you look just like the picture! P&T claim it works wonders. Tom Mullica does a one-man Red Skelton tribute show in Branson currently, does all the characters and everything.
Click to expand...

That is hilarious! I could imagine myself doing it in my younger day because it is akin to my sense of humor. :)
 
Recieved via email from an Australian acquantaince who hosts a site featuring missing persons from AU:

"You unknowingly helped me alot a few weeks back, I did a newspaper interview and was then contacted by three psychics so your strong views and advice about them really helped me to fend them off. One of them left me open-mouthed - he was enquiring about how much reward was offered about various cases as he felt that would "motivate" his psychic abilities. I told him very clearly what he could do with his "abilities"! "
 
Kelly said:
I received a phone call the other night on my home phone from a woman who said she wanted to help me (for free) with my son's case. She had left a message earlier in the day claiming that she had questions about my org, which was not the case. When she prefaced her intro with comments like "wanting to help us" and "assuring you I am not crazy", I knew it was going to be "one of those calls", which I had not had to deal with in a very long time. This woman had not seen my blog, as I found out later in the conversation, so she was not aware of our position when it comes to things paranormal in relation to missing persons.

I believe that because of what I have learned here and in sharing our stories, I was able to handle this phone call in a new way. I remained calm and did not become upset or angry at this woman.

I know little about divining, other than it's a stick finding water. I knew that people now say you can find missing persons by divining, which seems pretty ludicrous to me.

The woman began by telling me that she came within 100 yards of finding a missing couple by using this method. She said she could not go further because it was on private property, and she didn't want to get in trouble for trespassing. It's a long story, but she had some knowledge of a person involved in the disappearance beforehand that led her to this site. I questioned her on this and pointed out that she did not really find them because she was 100 yards away and she had pre-knowledge. To top it off, she never told law enforcement because of the "they'll think I'm crazy" bit. So, when they found the bodies of the couple on the property, she self-claimed success. She could not argue with me when I pointed out the 3 facts: pre-knowledge, 100 yards away, and lack of confidence in the answer which led to not reporting it and no real proof it ever happened.

I admitted I did not know much about divining other than the water and stick system. I asked how one finds missing persons with this method, and she mentioned "with a copper wire". I said: "A copper wire can find missing persons?" I asked her numerous questions about instances she knew of wherein this worked, and she had none. She only had her own set of "facts" that came from other diviners. I came get her to admit that the whole premise did sound nutty. I did this in a very gentle manner. She was still not convinced.

As she claimed it is a "gift from God", I launched into a discussion of Christian beliefs in regards to using supposed paranormal "gifts". I gave her numerous examples of Sylvia Browne's antics. I also spoke to her about the hurt and pain caused to families of the missing by persons making this claims, not to mention the wasted resources. A few times during the conversation, she started to cry. I remained calm and assured her that I did not think she was a bad person, but just misguided. She apologized to me several times.

She still would not quite let go of it. I told her she could take her stick and find water all she wanted to, but that she'd better not claim to find missing persons and contact other families. I suggested that she find a huge property with many hiding places, and to have a person hide on the property and then see if she could find them, having neutral witnesses along. I told her not to do this just once, but numerous times. She said that was a good idea and that she would think about doing that.

I again reiterated the pain caused to families who go through agony because of their situation in general, but are then placed in an additional pain.wrenching situation for no reason and with no results. I did not hold back on this.

I told her to go read my blog, and that I sincerely hoped she would learn something more from it and that she would never make another phone call like this again. Again, I kept my voice calm and purposely lowered it to sound "comforting". Funny that I should have been in the reverse position.

She cried and apologized again, and then she thanked me and said that she was grateful I listened to her and that she had learned something. I felt she was sincere, but I also realize she might have been paying some lip service out of guilt.

It was interesting and I was pleased for myself that it had no ill effect on me.
Click to expand...

Kudos Kelly!

I wonder what the long term effect will be.
 
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