invisible

Still don't get what is unbelievable with the story - that a man would be in Cambodia on a business trip alone (he works for small export/import company), that he would got in a bar alone, or that he could be dragged there?

Or Occam's Razor is not applicable if a middle age man travels alone in SE Asia? Honestly, if you are a man fitting that profile, would you expect to be treated as a child predator with kiddie porn on laptop? Would you consider this normal?

Don't you think if one expects that all (most) people are telling lies (not matter that Dr. House says about it) to take advantage of him/her sooner or later (sooner actually) will find oneself alone and hating the whole world?

Thanks for the compliment (no irony attached in this statement). Well, I simply treat people the same way I want to be treated and I do it first without waiting them to make first step. It worked so far for me >20 years of my adult life.

I do not think that it makes me naive person either - the existence of this thread is proving opposite.

Nowdays they are sending emails and this excuse does not quite work. Plus in my book there is no need to keep people around you if they are trying to take advantage of you.

Thanks for suggestion. The job I am doing (service organization spanning across three continents and >10 countries) if I won't apply the same principle one would go nuts next week.

lin821

Which one is it? 20 years in Singapore or 1.5 years?

IAN-UK

I think we have been applying the razor. For my money, the simplest explanation for a robbed and hungover Russian in Phnom Penh involves too many beers and unwise company.

You've lost me completely with your reference to predators and porn.

invisible

I moved in Singapore 1.5 years ago. Last 20 years I've been living in 7 different countries and Singapore is the last and current one.

gailwynand

I'm American and lived for the past 10 years in one of the US's more crime ridden cities, so I just console myself in the knowledge that whatever Asian country I'm in is no more dangerous than home. Sure, I'm a foreigner and thus a target for scams, but I've seen them all before. And 95% of petty crime is easily avoided through basic street smarts.

The sensationalistic stories in the ST and other Singaporean media about people getting carjacked in Malaysia, etc are not representative. It's like they say about local news in the US: if it bleeds, it leads.

BTW, your street smarts should be turned on anywhere you go. Including Singapore. You may not need to worry about getting mugged in SG, but there are plenty of other things that can go wrong, and as a foreigner you are under special scrutiny especially in the current political climate.

JDiver

There are possibly no, and at least very few, "Asia-specific" scams - scams are scams, easily replicated in various cultures and countries and tuned for local conditions. One can get invited to a "tea ceremony" in one country, and a similar activity in another; ripped off by a tax driver, in a metro, pickpocketed, set up, a valuable "found" with an offer to "share in the good fortune", hit up for a signature for a petition (and a request for money, as surely as the sun follows the moon) for drugs rehab, monte and shell games, deaf-mute assistance, etc. etc. and if it is successful, it's replicated elsewhere with some minor tweaks.

As this topic is not Asia-specific and has veered off track to a more of a personal direction, the thread will be closed.

Please follow travel safety topics in Travel Safety & Security - Practical Safety Issues.

JDiver
senior moderator