Avoid The Baby Milk Scam In Siem Reap Cambodia
Sometimes, Teacake gets scammed. It’s only happened twice in 5 years luckily but it can happen nonetheless, no matter how much you think you have travelling sussed out. One scam I fell for is in Siem Reap in Cambodia. This was back in 2013 but a quick google search proves that it’s going just as strong now! Goddamit! Avoid the Baby Milk Scam in Siem Reap Cambodia!
What’s going on?
- There’s going a be a young kid with a very cute baby
- They’ll approach you and say the baby is hungry: they don’t want money, just milk
- No problem I thought, I’ll grab you some milk kid. Milk is cheap, right?…
- The kid will take you to a shop (and the shop is totally in on the scam)
- They’ll take you to the milk and oh boy is that powdered milk expensive! Around $25
- As you’re going, ‘$25…really?!’ The kid will tell you they really need it / their sibling is starving etc
- My gut knew something was seriously up, but I ignored it (tip: never ignore your gut)
- I bought the milk, felt good for a few minutes, then quickly realised everyone else on Pub Street was asking for milk too. What the hell?
- Went home. Googled ‘Cambodian milk scam’. Boom! Top scam in Siem Reap
- The kids will go back to the shop, sell back the powdered milk and split the profits they’ve made with the shopkeeper. Boohoo to this
- Rumour has it that the babies aren’t even family: they’re rented or borrowed for the night to make money
Check out Teacake’s whole list of Travel Scams in Asia!
Related Reading
10 Essential Cambodian Phrases
Don’t be tricked! Pin me!
Have you been scammed whilst travelling? Comment below!
*Post title image ‘Flat Out For A Good Time At Lawson‘ ©Blue Mountains Local Studies adapted and used under the Creative Commons licence*
Wow, that’s good to know! Lot of odd scams out there!!
Same thing happens in Bombay, for example around the Gateway of India. Also heard about a friend getting scammed like that when it came to buying rice, like a 10 or 20kg bag or something – not sure if it was India or Sri Lanka, though.
Yes, it’s unnerving to be treated that way – had my fair share of meltdowns and rants while travelling in Asia. At the same time I can’t stop but wonder how much more our governments and ancestors have scammed those countries. And still continue to do so nowadays in the world of business & politics. Nothing’s ever out of context or without a reason. “BE NICE. DON’T STEAL. KARMA WILL BITE YOU ON THE ASS.” – as you say yourself :)
Hi Magda! Yep these scams seem to be copied, repeated and successfully completed! When you put it into perspective, yes…countries aren’t exactly the nicest to each other to gain something or another. Nonetheless, I really do believe in Karma and when someone does wrong, I can only hope that someone is gonna bite them on the goddamn ass back haha.
This happened to me in Siem Reap only last month; I chose to ignore all the warning signs my gut was screaming at me “why is she bare foot when all other Cambodians have shoes?”, eventually she got $13 out of me after I got her down from $26 but I’m still pissed at myself now for not following my instincts. They target lone women travellers for obvious reasons. It’s gangs running the scam, the money doesn’t even go to the woman scamming you but to her boss and the babies have often been sold by poor families who need to make some cash/can’t afford to keep baby.
It really sucks and is a scam which you can easily believe and fall for. The more people know about it the better. spread the word!
cool, looking forward to it!
The grittiness of these far off cities in a 3rd world country are all part of the whole experience. It is very sad to see people living with so little. But here’s where my American capitalistic asshole-ness comes out….. I never give money to beggars and those running scams. Whether it’s here in the states, or abroad, just too many scams and unscrupulous people to deal with.
Street vendor selling their wares… SURE! I’ll buy from you!
Street beggars, not so much unfortunately…..
Mmmm! You have just made me think of a key story about this! I’ll write it today, thank you for triggering a post idea :)
That’s awful! Now I know!