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Now for the scalpers' next target: Lady Gaga shows

Lady Gaga fans who attended the recent Hong Kong Sevens are bound to see a few familiar faces at the pop diva's four gigs in the city next month - and that'll be the ticket touts outside the venue.

The 'Born This Way Ball' hits the AsiaWorld-Arena on May 2, 3, 5 and 7, the final show having been hastily arranged after a ticketing fiasco left fans in a rage at scalpers.

When tickets went on sale for the first three shows, they sold out within one and a half hours. That same afternoon, the HK$1,580 tickets were being advertised for HK$4,100 on the Craigslist website.

Rumour has it that tickets for Lady Gaga (pictured) have been selling on the black market for up to HK$10,000, and police have said they are investigating any illegal reselling. Any touts unable to offload their tickets over the internet are likely to be hawking them outside the gigs, and there is little doubt that fans without tickets will turn up with that in mind.

Conita Kwok, manager of official distributor HK Ticketing, told the Sunday Morning Post: 'We agree that scalping of tickets is not good; we are seeking better means through technology and ticket-selling procedures to minimise it.

'Recent ticket-buying activity indicates scalping is a growing trend and we will resist this practice in every lawful way we can.'

Sound familiar? It was more-or-less what that Sevens organisers the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union were saying, too.

Kwok said: 'Where it is lawful for us to do so, we will prohibit multiple credit card transactions as this is the first sign of scalpers at work.'

She said scalping was a global problem and research was going on worldwide on how to stop it.

'We hope better ways to deal with it will be put forward,' said added. 'Our first objective is to maximise the availability of tickets at their original price to those people who genuinely want to attend the event.'

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