Clairvoyant Callers

First Miss Cleo was charged with fraud. Now telephone telepathics in Vietnam are under fire. There are more than 300,000 Vietnamese soldiers missing from the war, and Hanoi is warning that clairvoyants are duping distraught relatives of MIA soldiers with claims of a 70% success rate in tracking down loved ones' remains--with the help of cell phones. After an initial consultation, a seer draws a map with the location of the missing body. The family heads to the site and makes cell-phone contact to narrow the search, receiving instructions like "See that banana tree? A little to its left." One psychic agency claims it's getting up to 100 inquiries a day for its service, in exchange for "donations" of $40. Unlike the millions spent by Washington to help find missing U.S. servicemen, Hanoi gives no official aid in tracking Vietnam's MIAs, other than to warn families that they are being led to freshly buried bones.

--Reported by Kay Johnson/Hanoi

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
PAULA DEEN, Food Network chef, who was hit in the face by a ham while volunteering at an Atlanta food drive
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

Quotes of the Day »

Get & Share
PAULA DEEN, Food Network chef, who was hit in the face by a ham while volunteering at an Atlanta food drive

Stay Connected with TIME.com