Cambodia, the land of wonder. With beautiful & mostly virgin natures, it is one of hidden gems in south east Asia region. Thus tourism flourish well here. Unfortunately, with the massive foreigners coming in, scammers flocking around too.
This happened to me when I visited Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. Like usual, I travelled solo. I wandered the city alone, near wat Phnom, one of the famous landmark in the city. Suddenly a pair of middle aged man and women (or uncle and aunty?) rode a motorcycle and passed me by. They were histerical, always laughing like they’re high. But it was noon and scorching hot, and I didn’t smell any alcohol near them.
While they passed me by, they screamed “Nice T-shirt” at me. I wore a blue super sentai (you now, the Japanese version of Power Ranger) T-shirt at that time that I bought at Chatuchak Market, Bangkok. I continued my walk as I wanted to repel them with my “no given a fvck” attitude. But they made U-turn and drove by my side. And screamed “nice T-shirt” again while laughing. Frantically. Yeah, they must be drunk, or just crazy.
Scammers (S): “Nice T-Shirt!” while pointig at my T-shirt with their local broken english dialect. If you’ve been to SEA, you’ll know what I mean. They gave thumbs up.
Me (M): “Thanks!?” Still walking
S: “Where you buy?” they said again with much grammatical error to not to be missed. Those grammar errors made me nuts.
M: “Bangkok”
S: “Ooh, I love Bangkok. I’ve been there”
M: “… mmm, OK”
S : “I wanna visit Bangkok. Can guide me what good is there?”
M: “NO”
S: “Why not?
M: “Not from Bangkok” tried to levelling down my grammar to match theirs
S: ” So, where you from?”
M: “Indonesia”
S: “Ooh, Indonesia. Bali! I love Bali” said them, laughing.
M: “….. ” more suspicious.
S: “My sister will go to Bali. For work. Can you help her?”
M: “How?”
S: ” Just come with us”
M: “How can I help by coming?”
S: “You give suggestions, tips and all info about Bali to her. And please bring your passport too”
M: “Wait, what? What for?
S: “So we can see…”
M: “…” starting to annoyed by them since they ARE confirmed themselves as scammers.
   “Look, I don’t bring my passport. I left it at my hotel. Also, how can I come with you? You only have a motorcycle and there’re two of you. Won’t fit!”
S: “….” They started to think.
The conversatuion span around 10 more minutes, regarding my passport, hotel (which I didn’t mention the exact location) and reasoning why I have to go with them, why not bring their sister to here.
M: ” Ok, here. I want to help. But I need to bring my pasport first. Also you need to bring another motorcycle with you. Then I will come with you!”
T: ” But how can I meet you”
M:” Ok, right now, I want to go to Wat Phnom. You know where it is, right? My hotel is around that area, I need to get my passport too. But I will wait you at Wat Phnom.” Those words came out ouf my mouth confidently.
T: “Oooh, Wat Phnom. Okeeii, okeeii. Wait us!”
M: “Of Course! I will glad to help you”
T: “Wait us, okeiii? Won’t be long!”
M: “Long is OK too! We’ll meet at 5pm, sharp! How is that?” it was around 4pm.
T: ” Okeeeii” said them happily in loong “ei” at the end of “Okei” meant to be that it is confirmed, and thinking I will stay true to my words.
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“5pm! See you!” and started to drove away, while still laughing.
M: ” See You!” waved at them and smile. Tried to force my sincere smile at my best.
DUDE, I tricked scammers!
I still waved at them to see if they’re out of sight. Then I ran away the opposite of Wat Phnom straight to the riverside. Never step foot again around that area in that day. I went to my hostel, use their wi-fi and checked what kind of scam was that?
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| Just an illustration about this chaotic city, yet they can live in harmony |
And my intuition turned out to be true!
It is another kind of scam yet creative. They will ask the victim nicely, doing standard profiling. Once they know enough, they will persuasively ask the victim to join them, to help one of their family members. Mostly they will say something like, their sister will come to work or stay long in the victim’s country, and ask to provide any information regarding how to live there, the food, anything!
Once the victim join them in their house, the lil’ sister will come and ask the victim with a little bit of flirting. At this time, all will go smooth. The terror will start once the victim go back. A small group of tugs will intercept the victim and take any valuable items. And the passport! They will confiscate it and ask for ransom.
Or, the thugs will act like authority and ask for the victim’s passport, confiscate it and ask for ransom. Usually they’ll take your valuable items you carried too.
Well, any way…
Bullet avoided!
