Woman promotes her exorcism powers on TV -- then robs ‘possessed’ victims with a simple trick

Some advice: If someone claiming to be an exorcist asks you for money to rid you of evil spirits, you probably shouldn't give it to them.

Dallas News reports that police in Tyler, Texas, are searching for an "exorcist" who has been swindling people out of hundreds of dollars.

According to police, a woman in the area has been promoting her exorcism powers in local TV ads and has lured at least two victims to take the bait. When they arrived at her home, she confirmed their suspicions that they were being possessed by evil spirits and began to perform an exorcism ritual to drive them out.

The ritual involved taking money -- $500 in one case, $200 in another -- and putting it in a bandanna. She then instructed the victims to close their eyes and pray over the bandanna, and then told them to go home and not open up the bandanna until the next day.

When they eventually opened up the bandanna, they discovered that she had replaced their cash with cut up pieces of paper.

"It's not the first pigeon drop, as we like to call it, that we've had in the area," Tyler Police spokesman Don Martin told Dallas News. "But she made a pretty good haul and she decided to get out of town before we caught her."