Korean Travel Vlogger Goes Viral After Being Secretly Robbed In Cambodia By A Massage Parlor

His tuk-tuk cart driver saved him.

A Korean travel vlogger by the name of Yaman, has gone viral on community sites. He vlogged his account of being scammed at a massage shop in Cambodia, which was later reposted outside of YouTube.

He had been walking the streets after dinner, and a lady quoted him $5 USD for an hour’s worth of oil massage. Massages are often famous in Southeast Asia for being relatively cheap, and are hence a huge tourist attraction.

He was led to a dimly lit room.

After the massage, Yaman felt that he had wasted his money as the massage was ineffective and unskilled, and the room was dirty on top of that. Up to here, he was still clueless as to what actually had happened earlier on.

The next evening, he was strolling around again when he ended up joining a group of local tuk-tuk cart drivers for drinks. He willingly tried local delicacies such as grasshoppers.

The bunch got close quickly.

Things went south when a driver asked if had a hundred-dollar bill. They wanted to see what it looked like. When Yaman took one out, the drivers realized that Yaman’s bills were fake. There was even the word “copy” written on the bill in Cambodian.

Yaman protested that he had changed the money at the Korean airport, and was perplexed as to how this happened.

A driver asked if he had been for a local massage recently, to which Yaman nodded.

The driver explained that it was a common trick. Local masseuses would lure in tourists and switch their money when they were occupied with the massage. This happened especially for tourists who tend to keep all their money in their bags for fear of losing it. The driver advised Yaman to show his vlogging footage to the police the next day and offered to bring Yaman to the station in the morning.

Despite this, there was no guarantee that Yaman would get his money back. Local police were often in cahoots with such scam houses.

Yaman worriedly asked how much the drinks would cost him, but the kind drivers offered to cover it since Yaman probably did not have much cash left on him.

Netizens were appalled at what had happened and expressed concern over future trips to the country.

Netizen reactions to the incident. | theqoo
  • “Wow…So such things can happen.”
  • “Seems like that place is one which specializes in switching out money like that, if they’re in cahoots with the police.”
  • “Wow… Insane. If not for the drivers…”
  • “It is a relief that at least he met those men.”
  • “Do such things happen in Vietnam and Thailand too…? Although it’s not Cambodia, I was thinking of traveling to countries in that area but I am suddenly hesitant.”
  • “I’m too scared to visit. Those people were really friendly.”

Scams can happen in all countries. The key is to be on your toes at all times. Check out the full vlog from Yaman below.

Source: theqoo
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