Ran into an odd scam on Sunday at the Macau Ferry Terminal. Here's what I wrote to TurboJet:

On Sunday, July 5th, I purchased a ticket at the HK Macau Ferry Terminal
TurboJet counter for the 18:45 sailing from Hong Kong to Macau. At the
entrance to the boarding area, I was stopped by two young men wearing
TurboJet colors, who "inspected" my ticket, told me "Six thirty, hurry
hurry" and let me pass. Puzzled, I double-checked my ticket, only to
realize that they had switched it and given me a 18:30 boarding card
instead -- and it was already 18:36!

I confronted the tout, who returned my real ticket and waved me off.
But what would have happened if I had not noticed the smooth sleight of
hand, and how many travelers did not notice and missed their ferries as
a result? This happened within the Shun Tak centre, directly in the
line of sight of a real TurboJet employee 20 meters further down the
corridor. Why does TurboJet tolerate such blatantly illegal scamming,
in its own premises, directed at its own customers?

Is this scam common, or just a one-off? Is it actually possible to board ferries past the official departure time? FWIW, the 18:45 departure actually pushed back at 18:54, so for the 18:30 I would have had about 3 min to pass through immigration, find the gate and talk my way on board...!