Fortune teller accused of stealing fortune, $136K, from Fla. client

(CBS) ORLANDO, Fla. - A Florida fortune teller accused of stealing $136,000 from a client by convincing her to pay to have a family curse lifted has been barred from telling fortunes until the charges against her are resolved.

According to CBS affiliate WKMG police arrested Peaches Stevens, 29, on Jan. 11. She was charged with stealing from a woman who answered her advertisement promising "psychic readings" by Mrs. Starr.

The alleged victim, Priti Mahalanobis, said she initially paid $20 for a reading and then $200 for a follow-up, hoping to get insight into a relationship. Eventually, Mahalanobis - who reportedly has a degree in economics and finance - said she drained her bank accounts, a family business and a cache of jewelry to pay Stevens.

Asked why it should be a crime to accept money from someone who gave it willingly, Mahalanobis said, "She intended to defraud. She used lies and manipulation to continue to defraud us and made false statements also."

"You have to understand these psychics are very good at reading people and seeing where their weaknesses are," she said.

She said she turned over cash, gift cards and jewelry over an eight-month period in 2010, before she confided in family and realized she was a victim of a crime.

Mahalanobis said Stevens told her it would take about $20,000 for each of seven tabernacles, or tent-like shrines, to snuff out each generation's curse.

"She was trying to tell me I was the originator, the cause, the source of this curse," she said. "Therefore I was, she told me, the chosen one to release the family from the curse."

The Orange-Osceola state attorney charged Stevens with three felonies. She is free on a $22,000 bond.