A few months ago, I was asked to join a Facebook group called James Higgins Psychic Scammer EXPOSED! Like most of you, I get a lot of group requests, but this one piqued my interest. I had never heard of James Higgins before this.
I’ve been following the team’s efforts for the past six months or so and think I’m at the point that I should share some of what I’ve learned with you all. Normally I’m more focused on the grief vampires who are notable enough to have a Wikipedia page. This one isn’t close to that, but I still think it’s an interesting look into the variety of psychics and the efforts by skeptics and/or people who become involved with psychics to shine some light into the dark corners of the psychic business.
I reached out to the two main organizers for an interview of sorts, asking them to explain who James Higgins is, what they think he is doing, and to discuss their efforts. When Marc started the Facebook page to investigate Higgins, he asked hi coworker James to help him manage it.
Marc explains that a friend sent him a link to one of Higgins’s readings and asked what he thought of it. Marc quickly felt that something wasn’t right. Higgins claims to have millions of requests each month and a four-year waiting list for a face-to-face reading. (This was pre-2020) Marc spent weeks watching Higgins’s readings, after which he started the Facebook group intending to do more research. He said that he didn’t invite people to join, but he kept getting requests from strangers who wanted to be in the group.
Marc did an internet search for “James Higgins” and discovered that Jon Donnis from the Bad Psychics website had been writing about Higgins since at least 2017. Let’s start there.
Before we talk about James Higgins, we need a bit of background on his mother, Deborah Davies a.k.a. Deborah Jane Higgins, a.k.a. Deborah Jane McDonald. For the remainder of this article, to remove confusion I’ll refer to her as Deborah. I should be clear I had not heard of this woman before reading about her on BadPsychics.com.
All the way back in 2014 Donnis received and published an investigation from someone who wanted to remain anonymous. Note: While anonymous to us readers, Donnis knows the identity of the writer. On Deborah’s website (thankfully saved in the WayBack Archive Machine), we learn that Deborah’s mother was a medium who “later worked with the police on the Moors murders case and also the Ripper enquiry, shying away from any publicity she was a great help and located the body of one of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s victims.”
People began to complain about Deborah, which led to a (now-defunct) Facebook group that was attempting to inform unsuspecting sitters.
Now fast forward to Fall 2016, and we see Deborah introduce us to her twenty-five-year-old son James Higgins. BadPsychics.com again hosts an anonymous article in 2017 that posts screenshots from Facebook that show the evolution of Higgins’s psychic career. The anonymous writer goes on to explain that in the writer’s opinion the readings Higgins is giving to his sitters are “a load of rambling waffle.” Statements such as:
“I’m seeing that the past has held some more positive memories for you over recent years. I feel that there has been a big celebration over something you weren’t too sure was going to plan, have you recently had a child or has there been an unexpected birth in the family? I do feel that this was a big part of your life and I’m seeing a massive void being filled here in terms of you feeling content now. … I’m also seeing that there is a birth around you too, this is likely to be connected to you so I’m not sure if you have plans for a child but it’s you or someone close to you just to let you know.”
Higgins does a lot of live Facebook readings (although I’m not sure how he has found the time with his four-year waiting list) and asks his fans to post if they want a reading from him.
In June 2020, Jon Donnis released an update on James Higgins explaining that Higgins is one of the top complained about psychics on BadPsychics.com.
One of my favorite parts reading through this article is when Donnis shows eight different screen shots sent by Higgins to potential sitters that are mostly copy and pasted with just the name changed at the beginning of the post. With very few word changes, this is basically what the duplicate posts say: “Hi (fill-in-name-here), I can see a very caring lady is trying to reach out to you with an important message. Book in as soon as you can so I can connect with her and get everything from her whilst she is here. I believe there is something you need to know (heart emoji) I’m getting names and dates too xxx.” Then there is a link to his booking site.
Donnis states that many of these people reaching out to Higgins are very vulnerable, and he includes screenshots from various people such as this on: “I didn’t need to feel more vulnerable I lost my son, my Granddaughter, my nan and my mum absolutely heartbroken someone I put trust in can do this to me and others.”
So back to Marc and James and their James Higgins Facebook community. As I said earlier, I’ve been watching this group for the past six months, and the group adds new members all the time. Currently the group has 862 members.
Nearly every day, there is a post in the group saying that Higgins is doing a live Facebook reading, and the group members comment and discuss the reading.
They also post screen shots of their Messenger feeds with messages from Higgins telling them to sign up for a reading. “A man in spirit is reaching out with an urgent message! Who is it? What is the message? Book in right now to find out!” and then concludes with a link to book a reading.
The complaints about Higgins are pretty consistent.
- People who pay for readings don’t receive a reading and then receive spam saying to book a reading.
- They receive a reading but it’s so generic to be almost useless.
- Higgins offers free readings and then wants payment.
The claims made by Higgins of having a four-year waiting list, then doing daily live Facebook readings and then contantly asking people to book a reading is suspious. When people challenge him, ask for a refund, or complain, it seems they are blocked and/or given a verbal lashing.
Multiple James Higgins accounts have been messaging people asking for payment or asking sexual questions. The Facebook community recognizes that this is a common tactic of spammers who are not affiliated with Higgins but are trying to confuse and trick his followers into thinking they are him. I’ve seen medium Thomas John also complain about this, warning his fans that not all messages people receive from a Thomas John account are from him.
Higgins wants to join the Facebook group so he can one-by-one go though all the people who say they haven’t received their reading and send it to them again. In December 2020, Higgins posted through Facebook Live saying that he is upset about people calling him out. At ten minutes into this video, he says it is the fault of all the people telling lies about him and that he doesn’t have a “bad bone” in him. He loves every one of us, but people have been turned against him.
So where are we at in the story of psychic James Higgins? I would not be shocked if he is making a lot of money; even if he averages £15 on each sitter, that is quite an income. And what is his overhead? I don’t think he maintains a website anymore, just Facebook. I’m also not surprised that people are making fake accounts and going after his followers. That is another lucrative market, and his platform is ripe for pickings.
The bottom line is that there is a growing community of very upset customers who do not feel like they are getting satisfaction. I would not say they are all necessarily skeptics of psychics, because many still seem to believe—and some would be happy if they could just get the reading they paid for. Others are fed up and want their money back. One thing is for sure: they are on his ass and don’t miss a thing. Some appear to have been following Higgins’s and Deborah’s careers for years.
The Facebook community is archiving links, taking screenshots of most posts, and saving all the video they can find. There might not be anything they can do other than this—today. But having all this content collected may come back to bite Higgins later. Facebook and other social media may decide to eventually remove this kind of content.
If anything, it is providing support to over 800 people and growing. Possibly, some academic or social scientist will find a trove of information should they want to write about the sociology of the phenomenon of Facebook psychics.
To other people who think that they might want to make a career like Higgins has: it’s a lot of work. Seriously, you are online all the time and you need to find a system to stay organized. Plus, you need to make sure you report every bit of the income. When you talk about how long your waiting list is and how many readings you do, it might start catching the attention of the government, which wants to be sure it is getting its share of your income. It might come back to haunt you otherwise.
Plus, you need to understand that these are real people you are working with. They are grieving and vulnerable, and one of them may interpret your reading in such a way as they take their own life or harm someone else. You may be held responsible.
There is also the fact that there is a lot of competition. Nearly anyone can put up a psychic social media site these days. There are probably thousands of them, and more are added every day. It forces Facebook psychics to work more hours every day, keeping their fans interested. The psychic has to stay fresh and interesting in every reading and with every post. And knowing that there are people like those in this Facebook group and my Guerilla Skeptics waiting for the psychic to misstep has to be stressful. It’s not good for the psychic’s emotional health.
I was almost done with this article and posted my thanks to someone in the Facebook group for posting some of the screenshots you see here in this article. Twelve hours later, I woke up to what I expect was a Facebook Messenger post from James Higgins.
The message explained that he had seen my comments on the Facebook group and told me that there is no truth to what is being said in the group. The police and a “top defamation barrister” are issuing proceedings against the group admins. The police are also involved because of “chargeback fraud,” and the message says they have proof of losing about £20,000.
The message goes on to hope I will not write an article about James Higgins and that two other newspapers who had tried to do so were unable to do so because of “IPSO regulations.”
Then this Higgins account threatened me by saying that he will instruct his legal council and “seek an injunction” on me if I continue with publishing an article. He even gave me a deadline (which passed days ago) and said I would be held accountable for his legal fees and “other damages”—whatever that is.
And then he ends the rant by wishing my family and I stay safe through the lockdown.
I’m not sure what that was all about—but then again I’m not psychic.
