NYPD nabs alleged fortune teller accused of $90K scam

Police arrested a Manhattan woman for allegedly stealing nearly $90,000 through the seldom enforced crime of fortune telling, according to police and court documents.

And a former New York cop-turned-psychic-hunter said he was instrumental in the arrest.

Pamela Ufie, 29, was arrested Thursday for a 2023 incident during which police say she told a 43-year-old client that the woman's son suffered from a generational curse. Ufie allegedly convinced the woman to spend $87,000 on "specialty materials necessary to conduct rituals that would help the Defendant defeat the curse.”

Police said Ufie has had two previous arrests for similar schemes, but documents on those cases were unavailable.

Ufie pleaded not guilty during her arraignment Friday. She did not return multiple calls seeking comment.

“She is presumed innocent and all the evidence will be presented in the courtroom,” her lawyer, Albert Dayan, said.

While fortune tellers are a common sight outside bars and in shops across the city, claiming to use “occult powers to answer questions or give advice” is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail.

Few people make criminal complaints, though, and the NYPD rarely makes arrests. According to police data, 11 people have filed complaints against alleged fortune tellers in the last 15 years, and police have made only four arrests in that time.

One of them was a woman with the same last name as Pamela: Amanda Ufie.

Bob Nygaard, a former Nassau County police officer and private investigator who specializes in tracking down fortune tellers, said he helped arrest both Amanda and Pamela Ufie, who he suspects are related.

He said many police officers don’t know that claiming to summon the powers of the great beyond is even a crime.

“People go into a police precinct and they're told it's a civil matter,” he said. “Oh, you voluntarily gave your money? It's a civil matter.”

Nygaard said he was involved in all three of Pamela Ufie’s arrests.

He described flying up from Florida this week after learning about her setting up a street stand near Bryant Park. After struggling to convince multiple police officers to arrest Ufie, Nygaard said he finally called 911 but never got a response.

“ I ran down Fifth Avenue and caught up to a police car when it was stopped at a light,” he said. “I banged on the back of the police car before the light turned green and was able to get their help.”

Nygaard said he persuaded two patrol officers to look up Ufie’s wanted information in the NYPD’s internal system. When they did they arrested her. An NYPD spokesperson could not immediately confirm Nygaard’s account, though Ufie was arrested and charged according to police and court documents.

According to Nygaard, he has struggled to convince district attorneys to prosecute fortune telling. Indeed, even though police charged Ufie with fortune telling when she was first arrested, she was later only arraigned on grand larceny and accosting.

Nygaard said the reluctance by prosecutors is because defendants often claim religious exemptions, even though courts have ruled against them.

He compares fortune tellers to Ponzi schemers who prey on people trying to alleviate emotional suffering such as grief over a lost loved one

“Vulnerable people are being bilked out of millions of dollars and the law was enacted in order to protect those people,” he said.