At the onset, the newspaper blurb offering emotional healing beckoned to the vulnerable Cupertino woman, estranged from her husband after years of domestic abuse.

What the woman said she did not know then was that two years after answering the advertisement, she would be swindled out of $450,000 in an elaborate scam, which has left her broke, deep in debt and in even more despair.

Authorities say the source of the woman’s misery, Peaches Marks, 43 — a self-described healer who has served time in several states for bilking other emotionally fragile victims — is now in Santa Clara County Jail, charged with grand theft, extortion and identity theft.

Marks also is believed to have swindled more victims in the South Bay and in other states, using various aliases including, Anna Marks and Christine Blick.

“I feel very angry and betrayed,” said the onetime prosperous real estate entrepreneur from Cupertino who did not want her name used.

After responding to the ad in January 2003 in the Chinese-language newspaper, the World Journal, the Cupertino victim began meeting with Marks almost daily at the suspect’s gated Cupertino apartment complex.

“She was willing to support me and listen to me,” said the victim, who is in her 50s, during an interview Thursday with the Mercury News.

No money was exchanged — at first. They shared confidences and prayed, with Marks claiming at one point to have extracted evil spirits from her and showing her a blood clot she supposedly removed from the victim’s neck, authorities said.

“She continued to make me believe she was a missionary and that all she was trying to do is help people,” said the victim, a Taiwanese immigrant who moved to the United States in her 20s to pursue an education.

According to the Cupertino woman, Marks portrayed herself as financially independent, living on a lucrative life insurance settlement she received after her husband’s recent death. At one point, Marks told her she would attend a temple at a secret location, to seek guidance from her master, and that other Chinese monk disciples attended as well, the woman said.

The victim never doubted her.

“My life was very closed off,” said the victim, a mother of three. “I did not have much of a social life and no opportunity to learn religion.”

To the woman, Marks seemed like a calm, peaceful, simple woman. “I didn’t know I would get into a trap.”

Authorities say Marks tried to establish credentials with the victim by telling her she was an eye doctor, a professor at De Anza College and a researcher of the SARS virus — all lies, said Kristin Anderson, a sheriff’s detective who led the investigation in early 2009.

Six months after their initial meeting, authorities say,

Marks began telling the victim that for her prayers to be heard and answered more quickly, she’d need to buy gold hearts, which then would be embossed with the victim’s family members’ names. The money would be placed in a sock with rose petals and kept at a temple. Marks promised to return the gold once the victim was healed — something she never did, Anderson said.

Authorities say the victim first gave Marks $9,800. Then she handed over $12,000, then $48,000, and an additional $45,000. The highest amount she paid at one time was $51,000.

After spending all her cash, the victim began borrowing on her equity line and drawing cash advances on her credit cards. From 2003 to 2005, the victim estimated she had given Marks $450,000.

During that time, the woman said, Marks — who moved from house to house — made up other ruses to get her money, including seeking donations to help children who needed surgery for various illnesses.

Finally, the victim ran out of money and her meetings with Marks began tapering off, before stopping altogether. And, she said, when she asked Marks for her money back, her healer became evasive and then disappeared.

“I didn’t know what to do,” the woman said. “I gave up. I didn’t know where she was.”

Still, the victim was not suspicious — not until 2008, when she told a relative in Los Angeles what had happened. The relative raised her suspicions and then subsequently contacted the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, which launched the investigation.

Marks — who had been sought by Santa Clara County authorities on a $500,000 arrest warrant since November — was stopped during a traffic check in Anaheim, where police spotted her in a Mercedes with a Florida license plate. They discovered she had an arrest warrant stemming from the Cupertino case.

“I am relieved and optimistic that justice will be served,” said the Cupertino woman. “I feel there are many other more people like me who she targeted.”

So does the sheriff’s office, which is asking anyone with information about Marks to call Anderson at 408-808-4500.

Contact Lisa Fernandez at 408-920-5002.