Police Warning Public About 2 Scams : Crime: Spanish-speaking immigrants seeking construction jobs and recent widows have been targets, officials say.

Police officials from Fullerton and South County are warning the public about two scams, one targeting construction job-seekers and the other preying on recent widows.

In Fullerton, police said somebody is offering to find Spanish-speaking immigrants construction jobs in exchange for a $100 fee to join a union.

Earlier this week, according to Sgt. Glenn Deveney, a Mexican citizen was approached by a man in the lobby of an Anaheim hospital and offered a job in exchange for the money. The Mexican citizen agreed and drove the man to Union Bank in Santa Ana, where the enrollment to the union was to take place, officials said.

The Mexican citizen was then asked to drive the man to a Fullerton apartment complex, supposedly to pick up a pager that would call him to construction job sites. However, the man disappeared into the complex and did not return.

Anyone with information about the man suspected in the scam is asked to contact the Fullerton Police Department at (714) 738-715.

In South County, sheriff’s investigators said that at least one man has been telephoning women from Mission Viejo to San Clemente, using information from obituary notices.

At least five times over the past 15 months, the man identified himself as a bank official or police officer investigating employee thefts of depositors’ funds, sheriff’s Lt. Dan Martini said.

Using the names Douglas, Kramer, McDonald and Sgt. O’Donnell, the man asked the women’s help in catching the suspected thief by withdrawing $2,500 to $5,400 in $100 bills, using checks payable to cash.

The widows are told the money is to be put into an envelope and taken to a nearby location to be turned over to the same man, or a second man, to be checked for fingerprints. Sometimes, the man picking up the cash flashed a badge, police said.

Police describe the man as white, 50 to 55 years old, 160 to 170 pounds, with a full gray or white beard or a salt-and-pepper mustache. Occasionally, he wears a small fishing cap.

“He’s ripping off these old people like crazy,” sheriff’s Investigator Stanley Interrante said. Anyone with information is asked to call Interrante at (714) 647-7031.