Hingham -- Two self-proclaimed "psychics" accused of scamming a Pembroke woman last month have gotten into legal trouble before for their dealings with clients, according to court records and a Quincy lawyer.
The women, Tiffany C. Smith and Teresa Nicholas, have been arraigned on larceny charges and are out on bail while awaiting court dates later this spring.
Hingham police say they had been operating out of a shop just west of Queen Anne's Corner on Whiting Street, also known as Route 53.
Hingham police say Smith, 24, held several sessions with a 69-year-old Pembroke woman and told her that she needed to pay $16,000 to lift a "curse and a black cloud" and prevent the woman's daughter from hanging herself.
Police said the alleged victim eventually handed over a $7,000 check made out to Nicholas. Surveillance cameras at a South Weymouth bank showed Nicholas depositing the check April 6, police said.
Smith was arrested at the Whiting Street shop on April 14 and Nicholas turned herself in to police April 30 after a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Smith was arrested in Lakeville four years ago after a 30-year-old man with intellectual disabilities told police he had given her gift cards worth several thousand dollars.
According to a police report, the man said Smith told him to give her the cards so she could "change his whole life." Smith was arrested in 2008 after the man's mother found suspicious credit card statements. Smith was convicted the following year of four counts of larceny.
Smith's attorney, Risa Freeman, said the alleged scam in Hingham is "not similar" to the case in Lakeville, but declined to explain why. She said police have not told the whole story about what happened in Hingham.
"She's not guilty of this, and it will come out in court," Freeman said.
Nicholas, 43, does not have any convictions on her publicly available criminal record, but Quincy lawyer Robert Macomber said he recently reached a settlement with Nicholas on behalf of a client who said she had been scammed by the psychic. The client asked that her name not be used because she had not told her family that she had lost money to a psychic.
Nicholas' attorney did not return calls for comment.
In the three weeks since Smith was arrested, Hingham police said they have received several calls from people who said they may have been scammed by the psychics. Sgt. Steven Dearth said it wasn't clear whether any of the reports constituted a crime.
Hingham town officials are looking into whether the the town should have required the women to obtain a license. State law requires fortune tellers to seek a license in the town in which they practice or face a fine of $100.
Hingham has no fortune-telling license on file at town hall. Town Administrator Ted Alexiades said town officials were not aware of the license requirement until recently.
"It's apparent now that nobody knew that the town had an obligation to license these activities," he said. "We are focusing on that requirement now."
