8 Signs That Long Island Medium Is Fake

Theresa Caputo is known almost as much for her iconic hairstyle and fake nails as she is for her work as a medium. Whether it's her looks or her gift, Caputo is no stranger to getting people talking, and not always in a flattering way. Indeed, Caputo has been a divisive figure from the moment TLC's "Long Island Medium" first debuted in 2011.

According to Caputo, she has been sensing spirits practically all her life, but she didn't come to terms with her abilities until a tragic world event changed her outlook on death. While she thought about becoming a medium in her 20s, Theresa Caputo officially got her start in 2011, telling 068 Magazine, "After 9/11, I had a spiritual experience, where I was told that this was my soul's journey; that I had the gift to be able to give peace to people and be able to move on after the loss of a loved one."

Since then, she's managed to build a successful brand, penning multiple books in addition to her TV show as well as taking her skills on the road with a live show. However, skeptics remain and it's not surprising, given that the Long Island Medium's ex-husband didn't always believe in her powers either. Yes, there are plenty of folks who believe Caputo was able to speak to their loved ones, but others are just as convinced of the opposite. Here are eight signs the Long Island Medium is a fake.

If the enigmatic Theresa Caputo's readings on TV always seem a little too smooth, that may be because she knows exactly what she's going to say before she says it. In 2013, paranormal investigator Kirby Robinson attended one of Caputo's live shows to assess the legitimacy of her gift. He then documented his experience in a book titled "Is The Long Island Medium the Real Deal?" in which he claimed he spotted something suspicious happening before the performance. "I started to notice some men and women who were nicely dressed and overly friendly as they moved around the clusters of Theresa Caputo fans," Robinson wrote, per RadarOnline. Apparently they spoke to various audience members, asking them personal questions about the deaths of their loved ones. Robinson alleged he followed one of the well-dressed men, whom he believed may have been planted by Caputo to gather intel, and saw him going backstage.

The following year, one of Caputo's clients made similar claims, telling RadarOnline that the night before she was due to film "Long Island Medium," she received a call from Caputo's assistant. The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, had lost her husband in 2012 and had apparently told the assistant all about it. "She promised she wouldn't tell Theresa, but she totally could have told her everything," the woman noted. Even so, the client claimed Caputo repeatedly got things wrong during their session and that filming ended up taking over six hours. "I don't believe her," the woman snapped. "I think she's full of crap."

In addition to reportedly using staff to gather intel ahead of readings, Theresa Caputo has been accused of curating her live audiences for maximum success. In 2016, paranormal investigator Massimo Polidoro penned an article for Skeptical Inquirer, claiming, "Caputo places in the front rows those who she already knows, for whom she already has performed in the past and about whom she has already learned everything there is to know."

Magician Mark Edward made similar allegations in a scathing op-ed titled 'Is Caputo Kaputo Yet?' after teaming up with "Inside Edition" to observe Caputo at various live shows around the country. According to him, "Theresa bumps up her percentage of hits and avoids bad misses by front-loading her stage shows with a combination of techniques." Edward believes Caputo planted clients she'd already done readings for in the crowd and that she and her team used social media and credit card information to gather insights on as many audience members as possible. "Our own egocentric fascination with ourselves makes it easy for the techie-smart-agent or producer to make seeming miracles happen," he concluded. To prove that point, Edward shared how one woman was asked about baby clothes and responded, "That's weird –- I just put up a bunch of pictures of baby clothes on my Facebook page."

Back in 2012, when "Long Island Medium" was at the height of its popularity, "Inside Edition" set out to see if Caputo really was connecting with the other side. Working with former psychic Mark Edward, they attended live readings and honed in on various tricks the TV personality reportedly uses to fool her fans. First up was cold reading, the practice of asking vague, open-ended questions that are likely to resonate with most people. While this is harder to use in a one-on-one setting, Edward noted that with an audience of a few hundred people, the success rate is almost guaranteed. If something doesn't quite match, Caputo can try to pin the same revelation on someone else in the crowd. "If you have a group of 400 to 500 people in a room, you can say anything," Edward noted.

And yet, Caputo's tricks also work on smaller groups. To show just how easy it is to pull off a so-called reading, "Inside Edition" gave Edward a crowd of 24 people and asked him to connect with the dead. By posing open-ended questions, like "Who's the dancer that I'm getting?" and making non-committal statements like "Someone just lost a pet," he was soon able to make connections with the audience. "I made all that up," he later confessed. "I did this for a reason, to show how easy it is to fool people."

While Theresa Caputo's track record on TV appears perfect, her ability to get it right may stem more from good editing. When performing live shows, Caputo has been known to guess incorrectly and try to save face by quickly moving on to someone else. That's exactly what journalist Jaime Franchi experienced when she attended a show in 2014. As she wrote in the Long Island Press, Caputo repeatedly tried to pin messages on various folks until someone connected with them. When she asked a woman if her uncle had drowned, she said no, and so the famed medium began asking others the same thing. She continued to strike out until someone told her that when their loved one died of cancer, their lungs filled with fluid. "Perfect!" Caputo reportedly concluded and moved on, despite the obvious shortcomings.

Similarly, when "Inside Edition" saw her perform, Caputo asked two audience members in a row if their mother had died and both said no. Then, in 2018, reporter Jessica Remo wrote about attending a show where she experienced more of the same. "Any time something was wrong for one person, it was right for someone else and that person stood up," she shared in NJ.com. "Caputo bounced around all night this way, talking as fast as an auctioneer, leading her own game of spiritual whack-a-mole."

Theresa Caputo has spoken to us about struggling with her gift, but according to some fellow media personalities, said gift doesn't exist. In 2014, Caputo appeared on an episode of "Watch What Happens Live" and, as host Andy Cohen recalled in his memoir later that year, he wanted to experience a reading first-hand after cameras stopped rolling. "I asked for a few minutes with her afterwards to see if Natasha would come through," Cohen wrote in "The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look At A Shallow Year." The talk show host was hoping to connect with his best friend, actor Natasha Richardson, who died in a skiing accident in 2009. Unfortunately, the experience was not what he'd been hoping for. "She didn't, so it was a lot of fishing," Cohen shared, recalling how he later received a call from Caputo's manager with the offer of a second try. "[She] said she feels terrible that she didn't give me a good reading and wants to do it over," he recalled. "A polite offer that I refused."

Caputo didn't initially respond, but during a 2019 interview with the Des Moines Register, the reality TV star said she only spent about 30 seconds with Cohen and that his telling of the story wasn't totally truthful. "It's not like he came and sat in for a private session," Caputo told the outlet. "Don't always believe everything you read online. "

Andy Cohen isn't the only celebrity who's been rubbed the wrong way by Theresa Caputo. In 2014, RadarOnline reported how Howard Stern actually pulled Caputo from his show and barred her from ever appearing in the future due to what he considered to be outlandish demands. According to Stern, Caputo had asked to spend 45 minutes alone with his audience before taping, which he refused. "She's never coming in here," Stern fumed to RadarOnline. "The Long Island psychic is not a psychic."

Anderson Cooper had Caputo on his show in 2012 where he was equally unimpressed. Speaking in a post-interview clip, Anderson said he still wasn't sold on mediums, noting that when you make broad statements, like "somebody here has lost a sister" to a room of 300 people, chances are high someone will raise their hand. "I just sort of wanna see actual proof," he mused. Indeed, looking at Cooper's episode with Caputo, it's easy to see why he would be skeptical, as she repeatedly missed the mark. In one exchange, Caputo approaches a man whose wife had died and asks if he's wearing her ring (he's not, it's his mothers) and whether his wife had leg issues (she didn't). At that point, a visibly flustered Caputo tries to leave him and pin her statements on someone else in the audience, which also fails.

Despite the skeptics, Theresa Caputo continues to tour North America, successfully selling out shows and regularly adding new dates to her itinerary. However, it seems that many of her fans (who shell out hundreds to see her) have left Caputo's live readings feeling disappointed. Victor Fiorillo, a senior reporter for Philadelphia Magazine, saw Caputo live twice and it led him to urge his readers not to buy tickets to her tour. "Don't give Theresa Caputo your money," he wrote in 2025, calling her a fraud and claiming she relies on educated guesses to carry out her so-called readings. "Vague questions and comments get more specific based on Caputo's reading of body language or on verbal cues," Fiorillo mused, adding, "She deflects mistakes."

On Ticketmaster, there are numerous reviews that share similar accusations, with attendees claiming she wasn't genuine and did not live up to their expectations. "It seemed almost staged as to who she chose," wrote one disenchanted fan. Another concurred: "Obvious that she had picked specific people to focus on prior to the show." Others also criticized her attitude with one sharing, "Theresa got upset with people who didn't immediately validate her questions to them."

Theresa Caputo has something to say to skeptics: She doesn't care. "Listen, I'm not asking anyone to believe in me," she told us back in 2021. "I'm the first one to say that what I do is absolutely crazy." Indeed, she's been known to refuse to justify her talents and has even been caught getting snappy with audiences. During an appearance on Anderson Cooper's show on which she was striking out, she turned on the crowd, slamming, "I don't care if you believe in what I do."

It's a sentiment she's shared repeatedly over the years, telling "Inside Edition" in 2012 that she only cares about helping her clients heal. "I respect and understand skeptics," she said. "I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone, that's not why I do what I do." Which explains why she ignored Criss Angel's 2013 challenge when he tweeted, "@theresacaputo take my 2 million dollar challenge or stop exploiting the vulnerable." She's also ignored magician James Randi's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which will award $1 million to anyone who can prove paranormal activity. "I will never prove or defend my gift," Caputo told the Des Moines Register in response.

But while she's supposedly indifferent to people questioning her talent, she wishes skeptics would back off her fellow believers. As she told AP in 2017, "How can someone tell someone that what they're experiencing isn't real?"