October 09, 2025
Tanya Breen/USA TODAY NETWORK
The owners of Jenkintown Psychic Visions face charges for allegedly stealing more than $600,000 from two customers who came to them for spiritual guidance, Montgomery County prosecutors say. Above, a woman holds tarot cards at a shop in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
The owners of a Jenkintown psychic business allegedly scammed two customers out of more than $600,000 by convincing them the money was part of a ritual to free them from powerful curses causing disturbances in their lives, Montgomery County prosecutors said.
Detectives started investigating Gina Marks, 52, of Huntingdon Valley, and Steve Niklas, 40, of Jenkintown, after a woman came forward to police last December to report her experience at Jenkintown Psychic Visions.
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The woman told police that she followed Marks and Niklas' instructions to make dozens of payments to them from September 2022 to August 2023 in an effort to "cleanse" herself of a curse that plagued her marriage and other relationships.
Pennsylvania is among a handful of states with old laws that ban offering fortune telling services for profit. The state's 1861 law, enacted during a panic over the growing influence of astrology, defines fortune telling for financial gain as a third-degree misdemeanor offense.
In practice, many psychic shops operate by stating that their fortune telling services – including tarot card readings and other forms of spiritual divination — are for entertainment purposes only. People victimized by fortune tellers also may not come forward out of fear of embarrassment.
Montgomery County prosecutors said Jenkintown Psychic Visions, at 475 Old York Road, used "psychological ploys" to prey on the vulnerabilities of customers and exploit them for financial gain. Marks offered services in person and over the phone.
The first woman who came to police accused Marks and Niklas of gaining her trust as spiritual advisors to steal her money, jewelry and other personal belongings, investigators said. Marks allegedly promised the woman most of her money and other items would be returned after the spiritual work was completed, but the woman told police she was strung along for months without resolution.
Financial records allegedly show Marks and Niklas received dozens of payments from the woman totaling more than $595,000 in cash and app transactions.
Marks, who allegedly gave her customers a fake name, told the woman she had purchased the psychic shop from its previous owner, investigators said. The woman told police she had gone to the shop's fortune telling services in the past.
Detectives also were contacted by a second woman who said she had a similar experience with Marks and Niklas. The woman went to Jenkintown Psychic Visions in June 2023 and paid Marks $300 for an initial reading, authorities said. Marks then allegedly told the woman to send Niklas another $2,000 — claiming the money would be returned — and demanded more money over the following weeks with escalating threats of harm if the woman deviated from the spiritual plan.
The woman told police she was given increasingly unusual demands, including to bring Marks a Chanel purse and provide potentially compromising photos of herself and her family members. The woman paid Marks at least $18,000 over the course of about a month, prosecutors said. When she confronted Marks and Niklas, they eventually returned the purse and a fraction of the money she had given them, according to charging documents.
Marks and Niklas were arrested Tuesday and each charged with counts of corrupt organizations, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activities, theft by unlawful taking, fortune telling and related offenses. Marks' criminal history includes three arrests for fraud and grant theft in Florida and Maryland dating back to 2009. Niklas was arrested in New York City in 2003 on forgery and related charges, prosecutors said.
Niklas' attorney, Lauren A. Wimmer, provided a statement to NBC10 saying her client plans to "challenge the accusations vigorously in court." Court records for Marks do not list an attorney.
The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office declined to comment about its decision to charge Marks and Niklas with fortune telling under the 1861 law, which was updated twice during the 20th century but still maintains that fortune telling for profit is a crime in Pennsylvania. The law is being challenged in federal court by the owner of an apothecary in Hanover, where a lawsuit against the York County borough alleges the statute violates First Amendment rights, which include freedom of speech and religion.
Former Abington Township Police Chief John Livingood told NBC10 that fortune telling investigations most often result in a "slap on the wrist" for suspects unless their schemes involve large sums of money.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Greg Scott, a Democrat from Norristown, put out a memo earlier this year seeking support from other lawmakers to repeal the statute.
"I have had constituents reach out calling for a repeal of this law, believing it to improperly target fortune telling and other amusements," Scott's memo says.
Marks and Niklas were arraigned Tuesday and released after posting bail. They have preliminary hearings scheduled for Oct. 20.
