Pat Kenny declares himself a Skeptic!

Myksyk

Hope you got Pat Kenny's annihalation of Irish Psychics Live racketeer Tom 'Space Cadet' Higgins on his radio show this morning. Pat had someone (Valerie Cox) ring the hotlines for a look into her future. It cost her €228 and the results, which we got snippets of, were woeful ... absolutely scandalous. Pat was surprisingly good and nailed Tom Higgins on what he called his sale of 'absolute rubbish', 'spoof', 'nonsense' etc etc. It really is worth a listen and Pat deserves congratulations on this one. The 'psychics' are, even as ordinary conversationalists, atrocious. One woman answered her mobile in the middle of a cusomer's call, while another regaled Valerie with his thoughts on Christmas and his holidays.

One of the most head-shakingly unbelievable pieces of information was Pat's question regarding some phone calls which were reported to have reached a bill of €10,000!!!!!!!! Higgins did not deny this and in fact said that these calls were refunded when brought to his attention. Very nice Tom ... what about the calls that cost €1000 or €2000 or €3000 ... did they all get refunded?

Higgins general approach was one of denial, obfuscation and redirection along with many other bogus defences of his racket (e.g. you can't have an opinion on this if you haven't tried it). Higgins tried to gain some crediblity by saying that at least they had no truc with "rubbish like astrology" before one of Pat's researchers informed Pat that Irish Psychics Live have a dedicated astrology page. Higgins then essentially lied that they don't charge for it. In fact he said "I would never charge for astrology". I just looked it up and they have a dedicated 1580 number for horoscopes!!

Great stuff Pat. Go here for a listen. It's about 44 minutes in to the programme.

Capt'n Midnight

One of his companies has paid fines in the past for scams. The fine was a fraction of the price of some of the calls you have listed. He and his ilk are targeting vunerable people's fears and hopes and dreams.

Due to the profit margins involved this probably has little to do with a belief in the supernatural by the owners.

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2005/09/04/story7647.asp

A company which made random mobile phone calls to more than 160,000 people was fined €1,500 in Dublin District Court last week.

It is the first time an Irish company has been successfully prosecuted for spam offences under data protection law. The action followed complaints to the Data Protection Commissioner by customers who returned missed calls on their mobile phones. When they phoned, they heard a message inviting them to ring a premium rate number to play a quiz game.

The unsolicited calls came from 4's a Fortune, which is run by Tom Higgins, the managing director of Irish Psychics Live.

davros

Just a reminder to everyone: since we are discussing a particular individual we should try to keep on the right side of the libel laws. Let the courts determine if laws have been broken.

samb

Is it not false advertising on TV to say ''find out your future now on Irish pschics live''?

sliabh

Your future is "you will hand over some (or a lot of money) to someone for realy dodgy, vague and nonsensical information"

Myksyk

During the piece you'll hear Tom Higgins refer to "the latest scientific research" which, he suggests, shows that it is possible to look into the future. I've emailed Irish Psychics Live requesting the references. I'll keep you informed!

samb

Good Luck :rolleyes:

Myksyk

Yep ... I wouldn't hold your breath!