What is the usual clientele of these folks? Is it rich people with cash to spare looking for a thrill? Is it desperately poor people looking for a leg up on their fate? Some mix of these and/or other?
.....Is it desperately poor people looking for a leg up.....
I’d say it is a real chore and takes superior expertise to con $312k from a poor person
I suspect it is a wide mix, though the psychics to the stars probably aren’t usually the same ones ministering to the down-and-outs. (But none of them have found a customer in me, so I really don’t know.)
They will typically target people in the midst of life-altering events, i.e. divorces, death of a loved one, loss of employment etc.
One scam involves them telling people that their jewelry, money, etc. is the source of their misery and needs to be turned over to them for "safekeeping". In some elaborate scams, precious gemstones are swapped out with glass or imitation stones before being returned. In other cases the psychic talks the person into signing them as the beneficiary of an insurance policy, etc.
Certainly it's something no "sane" person would do, but when they target people deep in grief with little or no faith, they make surprisingly easy marks.