"Don't be greedy" and "think twice" are the messages police are putting out after two elderly men apparently fell foul of a Mark Six scam and were cheated out of HK$12,000 in the past two days.
The latest victim, a 75-year-old man, met a woman in Tai Kok Tsui yesterday and was told she had a Mark Six lottery ticket that had won second prize in Saturday's draw - HK$1.37 million.
"She asked him to collect the prize money for her, claiming she could not because she did not have a Hong Kong identity card," a police officer said. "She promised to share the money, but asked for a HK$10,000 deposit."
The man realised it was a bogus ticket when he went to collect the non-existent prize money at the Jockey Club headquarters in Sports Road, Happy Valley and staff called police to arrest him.
The other victim, a 78-year-old man, was also arrested when he tried to collect prize money at a Jockey Club betting shop in Wan Chai on Tuesday.
He had bought the ticket for HK$2,000 from a man in his 30s who said he had won the second prize in Saturday's draw, but could not collect the prize money because he was not a Hong Kong resident and had to return to the mainland, according to police.