money and run. A real spellcaster asks for what money they need because it is indeed what they need; their expenses and efforts don’t just vanish if the spell doesn’t come out.
So many of my clients and friends come complaining that they went to other, fradulent spellcasters before who did the above tricks. Your best bet is to think of spellcasting the way you’d think of medical treatment: a doctor is not necessarily a fraud just because his treatment doesn’t produce the desired results, however, he may well be a fraud if he makes promises he has no business making. If he has an experimental treatment he thinks may help, that’s what he’ll say: not “I guarantee this new treatment will cure you completely!”
Knowledge is power, and knowing what is reasonable to expect from a spellcast can be the first step toward identifying a good caster. Because there are some differences between magical belief systems (for example, some casters believe in karma and will warn against or even refuse some types of spells; other traditions don’t believe in this, and their casters are willing to consider any kind of work you ask for) there can be a bit of variation, but some good general rules are:
You still need to do practical work to achieve your goal — you cannot act in a completely contradictory way and still expect success.
Your expectations need to be realistic. Magic can work miracles, but that doesn’t mean you should count on them occurring. If something is absolutely impossible then magic will not change that.
Be aware of the reality of your situation. This is both for your benefit and for any caster you hire. You may have to acknowledge faults in your self for this to occur, or face some painful truths, but this is important toward knowing