For those who were fans of late night Television in the early 2000s you Undoubtedly stumbled across a late night Infomercial for the psychic known as Miss Cleo Cleo and the organization Known as a psychic reader's network was The Undisputed rulers of 1-800 psychic Readings for a brief period of time Around the New Millennium and raked in Over a billion dollars from their Psychic scam in just about two years Before their empire eventually crashed And they lost over 500 million dollars In earnings after the FTC sued them for Deceptive business practices if you've Never had a reading from a real psychic Try us right now for free your father Had a stroke at a young age did he not Right did you get strep throat a great Deal in your late teen years yes I did Okay his eyes are almost spooky they're So pretty I gotta be my ex-boyfriend the Five of Swords is next to him and that Means that he is away yep did you think Cleo wasn't gonna see that oh I knew you Were oops you go girl let us not means You You try it for free now before we talk About the organization that ran the Empire let's dig into the past of Miss Cleo the real name of this lady was Yuri Del Harris who had created the character Of Miss Cleo for a play she wrote in 1996 called for women only despite her
Using a Jamaican accent in her Clio Videos it later came to light in a Lawsuit that she was born in California And had no records to show she had ever Lived in or had any family connection to Jamaica in any way on top of the Deceptive accent Harris had a history of Other sketchy dealings such as claiming She had attended the University of Southern California as a theater major Despite the school having no record of Any of her aliases ever attending on top Of that an organization known as the Langston Center awarded her a grant to Produce a play since she had a theater Background but it was then reported she Decided to skip town with the money and Didn't pay the actors telling them she Had bone cancer and wasn't sure when she Would be able to pay them for their work Harris life of small-time acting jobs From automatically changed overnight in The late 90s when she became the face of The organization known as the psychic Reader's Network the Miss Cleo character Was plastered all over late night Television and made the company over one Billion dollars in Revenue in a short Two-year period of time and made Miss Cleo an instant celebrity despite the Overnight success of Miss Cleo she Reportedly saw very little of the Billion dollars that was raked in as she Was only the spokesperson for psychic
Readers Network and had no actual Control of the company PRN was created In 1993 by two men named Steven feeder And Peter Stoltz they created the Company after seeing the massive success Of other 1-800 psychic infomercials like The similar company Psychic Friends Network which made millions in the early 90s convincing people to pay up to five Dollars a minute to talk to one of their Psychics Stephen and Peter tried to take Over the space with celebrity Endorsements at first one of the early Attempts in the mid 90s was an Infomercial featuring Lando Calrissian Hawking the Psychic Network who Apparently was desperate for cash after His mining business failed on Cloud City Why do you talk to PRN psychics it's a Free sample reading my career romance For free sample reading money my future My family my future my career would you Recommend PRN yes absolutely you bet oh Yes TRN is the best with a free sample Reading yes what does psychic readers Network have that others don't Integrity They have the original free sample Reading amazing accuracy psychics floor Friendly who cares psychics just see Good things in your future and help you Get them what's the best part of the PRN Deal the free sample reading of course The free sample reading no question I Find their psychics are the best you get
To try it out with a free sample reading Psychic readers networks so many good Reasons to call for perhaps the easiest Is the free sample reading try it out Call now despite many mid-tier celebrity Endorsements the psychic readers Network Saw only moderate success until their First ad featuring Miss Cleo in the year 2000 following this the company became An overnight success and made the two Men running the company a massively Rich However with sudden Fame comes scrutiny And the company was eventually sued by Individuals in 10 different states for Deceptive business practices and in 2002 The Federal Trade Commission charged Psychic readers network with deceptive Advertising billing and collection Practices many of the issues arose from The claim that callers would get five Free minutes to talk to Miss Cleo but When they called in the five minutes of Free time was spent giving their billing Information to the company and then Waiting on hold to talk to Miss Cleo in Most cases Cleo wouldn't even talk to Them directly and another psychic would Answer their call and tell them Cleo was On vacation in many cases callers didn't Even know their five free minutes were Up and they would be shocked the Following month when a several hundred Dollar bill would arrive in the mail PRN And the founders eventually settled with
The FDC by agreeing to erase 500 million In debt that was owed to them by callers And paying a 5 million dollar fine to The FTC Ms Cleo was sued by the state of Florida for involvement in the company But the charges were later dropped after It was discovered she knew very little About the running of the actual company The PRN company eventually stopped Advertising on TV and dropped Miss Cleo Which altered her life once again Cleo AKA Harris apparently was very Distraught about her involvement in PRN After they admit outed as a scam and she Turned into a bit of recluse she made a Reported four hundred thousand dollars From her time as Miss Cleo but it's Unclear how much she was able to keep After her Court battle and legal fees Harris tried to revive her character a Few times over the years to make money She voiced the character of Auntie Paulette in the 2002 video game GTA Vice City she became the spokesperson for a Makeup company and the Miss Cleo Character did advertisements for the Return of the breakfast cereal French Toast Crunch I go on babies Miss Cleo is Back no do you have silverware sweet B Oh my gosh I do I send you up something Other than a knife and a fork I have a Spoon how did you know Now I have a business that you are going To take that spoon and scoop up a bite
Of French Toast Crunch oh cinnamony and Maple syrupy I can't believe You so scrunchies back and I predict You'll love it Fioren didn't like Harris using the Clio Character for other companies claiming They owned the rights to the Miss Cleo Character and filed lawsuits every time She did so they successfully got General Mills to pull a cereal ad and eventually Drop the case against Rockstar Games to Pay for the similar character in GTA Miss Cleo eventually developed cancer And sadly passed away in 2016 at the age 53 however the her likeness as Miss Cleo Lives on as she can be found in Countless memes on YouTube and HBO Released a docu-series on her late last Year despite the sad ending for Harris Stephen and Peter the founders of the Company are still around and never faced Any jail time both appear to have made Out like Bandits Steven who apparently Still owns psychic readers Network which Now does online work only recently sold His Waterfront Fort Lauderdale mansion For a reported 14 million dollars in 2021 and has a New York City Apartment Listed for 40 million dollars as well The other owner Peter apparently left The company in 2003 after the lawsuit And started a website development Company based out of Florida that he has Been running since then the late 90s and
Early 2000s were the Golden Age of 1-800 Phone scams that made many people like Stephen and Peter massively rich in 2012 Mark Edward who was a top psychic for The Rival company Psychic Friends Network released a book titled psychic Blues that broke down the whole business Of how the psychics that answered the Phones didn't have any real Clairvoyant Powers and were trained to keep people Talking as long as possible he described His time with the company as being like A psychic Sweatshop despite all the bad Mojo that has since come out about these Psychic scams Miss Cleo AKA Harris Continued to claim to be psychic after Her time was over at PRM up until her Death she claimed that her goal had Always been to help people despite the Court case revealing she was born in California to American citizens she Continued to use her Jamaican Persona That made her famous her friends in the HBO docus series contested that she did All of her work as Miss Cleo to help People and was appalled to learn of all The terrible business practices of PRN Once they were revealed to her but it's Hard to believe she didn't really know What was going on especially considering The history of dishonesty around her Origin and work history but with that Being said I would love to know what Your opinion on this whole story is was
Miss Cleo in on the con or was she taken For a ride by psychic readers Network And had no idea what was really going on Behind the scenes