Duo rips off a lotto victims

HERE’S the ticket to a scam.

Cops uptown are on the hunt for a pair of perps who’ve duped unsuspecting victims into dishing out thousands of dollars in cash with the promise of handing over a multimillion-dollar winning lottery ticket.

In four incidents since April, lottery-winning hopefuls in East Harlem, Harlem and Washington Heights have turned out to be big-time losers.

“It’s baloney and it’s surprising that people fall for it, but they do,” said Capt. Thomas Harnisch, commanding officer of the 25th Precinct, who warned Harlemites at a recent community meeting to beware.

A 27-year-old woman was fooled in late April when a middle-aged woman approached her on 116th St. and 3rd Ave. claiming to have a $10 million winning lottery ticket, Harnisch said.

The swindler promised to split the dough, but told the victim she first needed some money to pay off taxes associated with the cash prize, said Harnisch.

The victim hopped into a gray minivan with a woman and man and the trio drove to her home, where she handed over $2,100 plus $2,600 worth of jewelry, he said.

The crooks then asked the victim to stop by a corner store to buy some juice and, when she returned, the lotto ticket pushers were gone — along with her money and jewelry.

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said Harnisch, urging anybody who encounters the grifters to call police. The latest incident occurred May 12 in Washington Heights’ 34th Precinct.

Police believe the same perps are responsible for all four incidents and the cases are being jointly investigated.

Police are looking for a Hispanic woman and man roughly 55 years old and 45 to 50 years old, respectively. The woman is about 5-feet tall and 150 pounds. Anyone with information is encouraged to call their local police precinct.