"If they're acting together and there's three of them, that's a conspiracy. What they were doing was they were defrauding all these people. Basically, they were taking advantage of people's good nature and generosity," said Covina Police Department Sgt. Dave Foster.
Authorities believe the women collected nearly $1,000.
Police were tipped off that the women were in the same place a few weeks ago holding signs of the boy.
The women claimed the boy died in a car accident, but investigators say no such crash occurred.