Miss Cleo: 'I'm Sorry That People Were Scammed'
Harris Claims She Was Victim Too
POSTED: 2:09 p.m. EST January 10, 2003
The television psychic known as Miss Cleo, who was driven off the airwaves by state and federal fraud charges, was back on the air, but she wasn't there to predict the future. Instead, she was attempting to clear her name.
The Jamaican-accented fortuneteller, whose real name is Youree Dell Harris, talked for the first time about the court cases with radio personalities Kenny and Footy on station Y-100's morning show.
Harris has claimed to be a Jamaican shaman. In a deposition with the state attorney general's office last year, she refused to discuss a birth certificate showing she was born in Los Angeles to American parents.
Harris had been charged with deceptive trade practices in a civil suit filed by the state attorney general's office against her promoter, Access Resource Services Inc. She was dismissed as a defendant and charges against her were dropped in December as part of the state's $44 million settlement with the company.
Under the settlement, Access Resource Services, which trademarked the Miss Cleo name, agreed to pay refunds to customers, halt all pay-per-call services and take no new customers for prepaid services in Florida.
The state agreement followed a federal settlement forgiving $500 million in customer bills.
Harris now says she's sorry that people were scammed by the service she fronted, and she says she has been a victim, too.
"I don't like what happened," Harris told the radio hosts during their morning radio show. "I was very angry about what happened."
Harris starred in commercials touting the psychic hot line and implying that callers could get free advice and guidance from Miss Cleo.
Instead, what customers got were high phone bills after being charged $4.99 a minute for the calls.
"I think initially, a lot of people believed out in the public that the company was mine, and that all the money was coming to me," Harris said.
But Harris said she was simply a contract employee of Access Resource Services and the Psychic Readers Network, the two Fort Lauderdale-based companies that operated the hotline.
The Federal Trade Commission shut the two companies down last year.
Harris maintains that while the companies were taking in millions of dollars, she was an unsuspecting front-woman who was paid a one-time flat fee of $1,700.
"That's the one lie that was told about me (that) I wish was true," Harris said. "I've heard how much (sic) millions of dollars I earned. I don't drive a car ... I didn't own a house."
Harris also said that she could not have pulled off the scam because, "anybody who is a black person in America can know I didn't do anything wrong, because there is no way they are going to let a black woman steal $3 million and not put her under the jail."
Harris said the companies she worked for got a "slap on the wrist," and she thanked those who have supported her despite the controversy.
"Thank you so much, because I felt the prayers and love and thoughts," she said.
Harris added that while she will not be resurfacing with a psychic service of her own, she will offer her counseling services to the public in some form.
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