Our Khmer daughter was telling us about a scam her prospective MIL fell for recently, and it turns out it's successfully ripping Cambodians all over the place.

The MIL was called by an unknown number (not masked, but not known) and told her son (by name) had caused an accident with a car. The caller wanted a million Riel immediately by Wing to cover the damage to the car, and in exchange he'd tell MIL where the accident was, as the son allegedly had concussion and needed to be taken to hospital urgently - and of course, was unable to speak. Believing the story, MIL became distressed as she didn't have one million Riel, at which point the scammer asked how much she did have - one hundred dollars - and he told her to send that immediately as a down-payment. He also told her not to contact or tell anybody else about it, or he'd let the son die and not tell her where he was. She went straight to Wing and transferred the money, but was growing suspicious and didn't send the transfer code. She'll wait for the code to expire and then go and collect her money back. The son was at work, unaware of any of this going on.

For Cambodia, this is a fairly sophisticated scam which trades (as always) on fear, ignorance and lack of education, and naivety. After telling us this story, our girl's sisters told us of others that had similar experiences, some who had fallen for the scam and others not. It's the first time I've heard of it and it's particularly brutal.

We spent some time shredding the scam so the girls all understood both how it worked and what the weaknesses in it were, including that they should borrow a friend's phone and call their loved one. If their loved one doesn't answer, they should at least be able to hear the phone ringing in the background on the scammers phone. We also discussed the merits of reporting the number to the police, but also to Wing.

For those of us that have close Khmer friends/relatives who are a little too trusting, it might be a really good idea to educate them about this particular scam.

Cambodia is the scammers paradise.
I’ve just noticed a lot of Facebook “Sponsored” adverts.

It must be a virgin scammers paradise.

Username Taken wrote: ↑Wed Nov 21, 2018 7:32 pm Why not, when she is supposedly going to Wing, she calls the loved one herself? If he's at work (or wherever he should be) he'll most likely answer.

Well, because he's lying unconscious on the road, clearly!

Damn frustrating, Wing agents used to have strict instructions to check all senders & whether they know the recipient or not- highlighting the known scams, and only continuing if the sender absolutely insisted. Even then police complaints could be filed and Wing agent CCTV would easily bag the perps. Seems there has been a drop in quality in recent times.

Spigzy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 22, 2018 10:31 am Damn frustrating, Wing agents used to have strict instructions to check all senders & whether they know the recipient or not

I have sent and received, at the very least, tens of thousands of dollars using wing between 2014 and now. I've never, ever, been asked if I knew who I was sending to or receiving from at any wing office/shop.

I wouldn't tell them if they did ask, mind you.

I wouldn’t know after 2014 sorry; ...they came from behind! #XWing #Porkins