WE PREDICT A ‘PSYCHIC’ LAWSUIT

By AL GUART and DEVLIN BARRETT

December 12, 2001 — A psychic phone service is about to get hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming it ripped off a heartsick Manhattan woman.
Enraged customer Mary Padilla says she filed suit in Manhattan federal court against the “Miss Cleo” psychic reading service.

“For the sake of consumers in New York and elsewhere, I’m going to use all the state and federal laws to bust Miss Cleo’s crystal balls,” Padilla’s lawyer, Susan Chana Lask, told The Post.

Padilla, 44, said she called Miss Cleo about two months ago, while she was having trouble with a relationship and after she got a letter from Miss Cleo’s company saying they knew someone was talking behind her back.

“I called up, they transferred me to two different people, asked my name three times,” said Padilla. “I told him he was wasting my time, and he hung up on me.”

Padilla said she was suddenly besieged by high-pressure sales pitches.

“They were calling me almost every morning,” she said. “They e-mailed me at home. Now I’m even getting e-mails at my work office. I don’t know how they got that.”

Several states filed fraud lawsuits against the company in the past year, charging it pitches “free” psychic readings only to switch callers to a high-priced $5-a-minute line.

Besides looking to get even in court, Padilla wants more immediate satisfaction.

“Leave me the hell alone and stop calling!” she said.