Male is taken in by worthless fortune-telling (9)
I believe the answer is:
palmistry
'fortune-telling' is the definition.
'male is taken in by worthless' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'taken in by' indicates putting letters inside.
'worthless' becomes 'paltry' (similar in meaning).
'm'+'is'='mis'
'mis' placed within 'paltry' is 'PALMISTRY'.
(Other definitions for palmistry that I've seen before include "way to see ahead" , "Telling the future by examining hand" , "forecasting methodology" , "Using hands to tell fortunes" , "attempt to predict futures" .)