Southeast Asia forum

Hi there,

I am a solo female traveler and I have had the same spiel given to me from 2 different people in 2 different cities, the first one was in Siem Reap, I am a photographer and had my camera out as I was doing some photography, a male came up to me and said 'nice camera' I said thanks and smiled, he asked where my accent was from, I said Australian, he went on to say he had a niece planning on coming to Australia to study and could I come back to his hotel to speak to her to give her advice on best universities, I said I had no idea and her best bet would be to go online and suggested one uni to look in to, all the while being polite but knowing he was up to no good, he said he was from Malaysia and that his family was with him but he had gone for a walk to have some time alone away from them, he was really well dressed and looked to be well off. For the record, I actually had my video camera recording at the time so caught the whole convo on tape. It was very dodgy

Tonight I was walking along the river in Phnom Penh out the front of my hotel, I had my backpack with camera in it so it wasnt visible at the time, (this man asked what was in my bag) a man was sitting down on a park bench watching the people dancing, I had stopped to look for a minute then walked off, as I waslked past him he commented on the dancing I replied politely then he asked where I was from, as soon as I said Australia an almost identical conversation started as with the first guy in Siem Reap, same deal as well, the guy was well dressed, clean cut etc. this time he wanted me to call his female cousin in Vietnam as I had mentioned that was where I was going tomorrow and if I could meet with her to speak to her about where to go etc.

If it does happen again I will be blunt but still smile and ask what it is they are trying to do here, I am sure they wont tell me but at least it will save the whole conversation again, does anyone know what it is they are trying to do? Is it a known scam? I cant find anything on the net, perhaps it's just pure coincidence but they seem to have the exact same spiel and they ask the exact same questions about who I am travelling with and why such a beautiful girl doesnt have a boyfriend blah blah........... then asking me to help out a female relative wanting information about Australia

If there are any girls who have the same experience or do have the same experience I would just say beware of these people as they seem really nice and I think some people would fall for their trick, whatever it may be