The publisher of the Hong Kong's popular Sing Tao Daily and its sister paper The Standard issued the warning Monday after it received a report from a Taiwanese man who claimed to have lost NT$83,000 (HK$20,617) to the scheme.

Yang Ronghong said an unidentified person phoned him in mid-May to conduct a questionnaire on finance on behalf of ``Global China.''

The 28-year-old Yang said he got another phone call later asking him to join a lucky draw in Taipei on May 24.

Yang said he did not go because he lived in Taichung. He said, however, he was surprised to be notified that he won the third prize of HK$300,000 cash in the draw. He said a man, who identified himself as Mr Fong, instructed him to hand over NT$83,000 to buy shares entrusted by ``the director of Global China Group Holdings Ltd'' before being entitled to the prize.

Yang paid the money and was issued two certificates of his purchase.

He said Fong called him back to acknowledge receipt of his money. He said, however, he has not received the prize so far. The fraud came to light after he talked to a Sing Tao Daily reporter Monday.

Both documents claim the trustee is Global China Group Holdings Ltd.

The address of the so-called ``trustee'' on the documents is ``Sing Tao Building, 200 Connaught Road, Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.'' The real Sing Tao Building that houses Sing Tao Daily and The Standard is located at 1 Wang Kwong Road, Kowloon Bay. The letterhead of the documents reads ``Sing Tao Fan Hua International Corporation.'' ``Fan Hua'' is Global China in Putonghua.

Sing Tao News Corporation Ltd publishes the two newspapers.

It adopted the present name on February 4.

Its former name was Global China Group Holdings Ltd, but it has never used ``Sing Tao'' and ``Global China'' together as its name.

A Sing Tao News Corporation spokesman Monday reiterated that the company has never held lucky draws in Taiwan. He said the company's directors have never entrusted any shares or funds, as Yang was told.

The company has reported the matter to the Hong Kong police. staff.reporter@singtaonewscorp.com