Any story about the Mind and Spirit Psychic Network would be incomplete without a call to the psychic service itself. So after scouting out the late-night airwaves for one of Miss Cleo's commercials, that's exactly what I did. What happened certainly amazed me—as the commercial promised—but not quite in the way I expected.

Under the guise of John Q. Public, I dialed the 800-number, and a cheery operator with a Southern accent informed me "Miss Cleo wants YOU to experience the power of tarot cards." So I can speak with Miss Cleo? I asked. The operator said yes, and promptly offered me her extension — 15163.

"It's as easy as that?" I asked. "I just put in the number and I get to talk to Miss Cleo?" "Yes," she said.

I called the 900 number and sat listening to instruction and muzak for nearly two minutes before anyone picked up the phone. But instead of reaching the popular tarot card guru as promised, I got Georgie, a Miami reader who (click here to hear a recording) quickly burned through my last remaining free minute gathering personal information.

Before I knew it, I heard the faint beep signaling that my trial period was over. "We haven't even done anything but the information stuff. Should I hang up?" I asked. "I didn't really get a reading."

"I know, I know," Georgie said, waffling. But then she put on the hard sell. "Do you want to get a reading?" she asked. "'Cause I'm really good."

"Oh, you're really good?" I replied.

"Yeah, I'm really good."

I continued the call to see what the reading held in store. I didn't find out until later just how practiced Georgie's spiel was.

During our 10-minute conversation, Georgie told me I was going through a period of catharsis. Something bad had happened, she said, but all would turn out well in the end. I told her about a recent burglary at my apartment that cost my roommates dearly, but had spared me any loss. Georgie suggested that the theft was performed by a jealous party.

She also asked me about my health. I told her I do push-ups, and joked that, like her husband, I too hope to have a "giant chest" one day. But just as I began the process of ending the phone call, Georgie told me more in five seconds than she did in the first ten minutes.

"I see more money, I see some kind of a business venture that's going to be popping up soon, and someone you know is going to have a baby..." she continued. I thought about what the Florida psychic I interviewed for my story had told me— tell them something they have to know more about, and they'll stay on the line. And then I hung up the phone.

The next day, I found a script (posted here for comparison with the audio file) that included sections with the exact same passages Georgie had read. I pieced together her entire dialogue, and followed along with the tape I had made, amazed. Georgie seldom deviated from the script, and appeared to have moved from passage to passage after each was exhausted. The whole thing was a sham.

Sean Moynihan, a lawyer for the network, later stressed to me that the subcontractors that manage the individual customers are not allowed to push scripts and that the subcontractor I called could get suspended and the reader fired.

And, as far as my rapidly disappearing free minutes were concerned, Moynihan claims that my experience was anything but typical. "That's not the way it's supposed to work," he told me. The free portion of the call, he said, is more than enough for the customer to develop a rapport with the psychic and see if they enjoy the service.

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Senior Producer Andrew Brooks contributed to this report.