Predicting a Good Tet

A new lunar year means big business in Little Saigon this week as Vietnamese American merchants and residents prepare for Saturday’s Tet celebration.

The streets are colorful with rows of orchids, mums and gladioli for sale in parking lots. Supermarkets and bakeries offer aisles full of sweet rice cakes, sugared fruits and melon seeds. Money-transfer businesses are reaping profits as people send traditional gifts of cash home to family members in Vietnam.

But some of the most bustling--and lucrative--businesses in Little Saigon this time of year are found only behind closed doors, inside living rooms and garages: fortunetellers.

Although authorities warn that some fortunetellers prey on the gullible, the practice is deeply ingrained in many Asian cultures. Especially during the first week of the lunar new year, many Vietnamese Americans consult fortunetellers to learn what the next 12 months hold in store.

With questions about topics from love to business and home remodeling, people are willing to wait hours and pay up to $100 a reading.

“It’s the busiest time of year,” said fortuneteller Linh Lai Vo of Westminster. “People come in here with eight or 10 of their relatives.”

Fortunetellers read cards, palms or horoscopes, often with the help of computer software. Horoscope and feng shui specialist Mai Dinh Pham in Westminster also offers readings on a cassette tape. Astrologer Miss Ha in Midway City can read the future on her Web page.

Among those who find the tradition indispensable is Nancy Doan of Anaheim, who spends about $200 a year on readings.

“It gives me peace of mind so I can focus on the rest of the year,” said Doan, 48. “Otherwise, I’d be too worried and can’t get anything done.”

It is an annual ritual for Doan, who has visited Vo several times a year for 10 years. So far, all that has been forecast--good and ill--has come true, she said. Her troubled son will graduate from college. Her nail salon was a failure.

“You have already suffered eight, 10 years,” Vo told Doan on Tuesday as she stared at Doan’s left palm. “But that’s enough. The year 2000 will be very rewarding. You will still be worried, but money will be flowing in. Your children will graduate school.”

Neither city officials nor business associations have any estimates of how many fortunetellers operate in Little Saigon. Most work out of living rooms, garages, backyards or rented space inside other businesses without a license, and many are not even listed in telephone directories. They rely on word of mouth.

The most popular fortunetellers are booked weeks in advance, especially at this time of year.

Fortunetellers say their customers are most often concerned about health, jobs and money. Many seek advice on the best day to open a business, hold a wedding or move into a new house. Failed business owners often pay hundreds of dollars to astrologers to banish evil spirits that they believe bring bad luck and misfortune to their business.

Seeking advice from fortunetellers is a long-established tradition in many Asian societies, but law enforcement officials take a dim view. Customers are simply being conned, Westminster Police Lt. Bill Lewis said.

“It’s the oldest trick in the book,” he said. “The people who go see them are in a very vulnerable state.”

Customers rarely file criminal complaints, however, and fraud cases are difficult to bring, Lewis said.

“The money is given willingly, so it’s hard to prosecute,” he said. “You have to draw a fine line between fraud and foolishness.”

Westminster attorney Lan Quoc Nguyen knows. He filed a criminal complaint in 1995 on behalf of a Westminster man who paid more than $20,000 to a fortuneteller who promised to find his runaway daughter. She was never found, he never got the money back, and police were unable to build a case against the fortuneteller, who soon disappeared.

Fortunetelling “is in the culture; it’s very important,” Nguyen said. “For entertainment, it’s OK. But people do believe that some have that power to see what they can’t see and hear what they can’t hear”--a belief that can make customers vulnerable to fraud.