Two women were arrested on Christmas Eve at Los Angeles International Airport as they prepared to board a flight to Hong Kong with $180,000 in cash and gold jewelry they had bilked from several San Francisco seniors using the notorious “blessing scam,” prosecutors said Monday.

Defendants Mudi Wu and Fuxi Dai, both 51, were brought back to San Francisco, where they each face 15 felony charges including embezzlement on an elder, grand theft, extortion and conspiracy.

The women made an initial appearance Monday in San Francisco Superior Court, where they were ordered to be held in jail on $250,000 bail. They have outstanding warrants in San Mateo County associated with similar cases in Daly City.

The arrest marks a significant takedown in a well-documented con that targets seniors in the Chinese community in neighborhoods across the city. The perpetrators of the “blessing scam” are often hard to catch, which has prompted city leaders and law enforcement officials to conduct numerous public awareness campaigns, warning citizens of the nefarious grift.

The scammers — who have been known to operate in cities around the country — typically tell their victims an elaborate story and get them to place all their cash and valuables into a bag, which the perpetrators pretend to bless and hand back. In reality, the con artists switch bags and keep the loot — often a person’s life savings.

“It is extremely troubling that elderly Chinese women are being targeted and exploited due to their cultural beliefs,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said Monday. “We will continue to spread the word, but it’s incumbent upon us all to be good neighbors, and to make sure that the most vulnerable among us know about these scams.”

Wu and Dai’s latest spree allegedly began Nov. 29 when they approached a 72-year-old woman, telling her an elaborate story, including that she was being followed by the spirit of a dead woman and that her son would die in a car crash within three days unless she obtained a blessing, prosecutors said.

Wu and Dai told the victim to collect all the cash she had at home, along with a handful of rice, and bring the cash to them to be blessed, prosecutors said. When the woman returned with $25,000 in cash plus jewelry, authorities said the defendants grabbed the loot and took off.

Then on Dec. 1, Wu and Dai allegedly approached a 69-year-old woman with a similar story about her son dying in a car crash. This time, prosecutors said they got $900 in cash after pulling the bag switch.

On Dec. 9, prosecutors said they took a victim for $7,000 after promising to protect her from sickness, and on Dec. 14, they got $100,000 out of a victim plus jewelry, prosecutors said.

In the last case, officials said Wu and Dai told the 72-year-old woman she had walked through the blood of a dead woman and child and that her family had been cursed by the ghost of the dead woman.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky