If this would happen to Cambodians, there would be a big uproar on Facebook.
Now tell me: why isn't there a big uproar on Facebook and why does this only happen to foreigners?
Oh wait, it's the ATM camera recognizing a 'barang' face and then deciding to spit out 'fake' or 'copy' notes, right?
Of course, that must be it! Screw the 'barang'!
(If that would be even possible if you know how an ATM works.)

I am not going into a timeline of what I did, for various reasons, but from the very beginning of my trips to Cambodia when I had some company with me, or even if I was getting a massage and they asked me to take a shower, I hang those shorts -containing my wallet- up in the shower with me. How mamy Khmers would be here on CEO complaining of being ripped off. The wallet never left my sight. I've been coming here for a long time and been to the remotest corners of this lovely country (even thought the Chinese are eating it away). I will be back again in December. I am pissed, but I'm not bitter, and I chalk it up. I posted as a warning to others. You can believe me or not, it doesn't really matter to me. I posted it as a warning, as it seems to me that I'm not the only one it has happened to, and as I stated earlier, there was an incident in Skybar. I will never use that ANZ 178 ATM machine again an will stick to ABA. Cheers.

All I can say on the issue is that I have a very, very good Khmer friend who works with me, and he's one of the most honest, decent people I've ever known in all of my entire life. He has a heart of gold and I'm pretty sure has never told (even a white) lie in his life. I know that everyone thinks they're a good judge of character, so I'm defenseless in that regard, but I absolutely 100% believed him when he told me that he withdrew a fake $100 bill from an ATM shortly after he'd been paid. (I won't name the bank - it's kind of irrelevant anyway)

I do understand that people are reluctant to believe that this type of thing happens, usually because it's a friend or a friend of a friend that it happened to, but I would straight up, without hesitation, put my life on the line to say that my friend was telling the truth when he told me he'd withdrawn a fake $100 note from his bank.

He was absolutely gutted. He's a Khmer so he gets paid Khmer wages. $100 is a lot even for us Westerners, but for a Khmer, it's devastating. It's was a substantial part of his monthly salary.

I suppose they are all just making it up
They must be conspiring given the overwhelming complaints against a particular bank going back years

frizzie77 wrote: ↑Fri May 31, 2019 10:32 pm If this would happen to Cambodians, there would be a big uproar on Facebook.
Now tell me: why isn't there a big uproar on Facebook and why does this only happen to foreigners?
Oh wait, it's the ATM camera recognizing a 'barang' face and then deciding to spit out 'fake' or 'copy' notes, right?
Of course, that must be it! Screw the 'barang'!
(If that would be even possible if you know how an ATM works.)

Barangs take money out of the bank because that's where they store their money. Khmers typically don't use banks especially ATMs to the same degree, nor do they usually withdraw big bills.

Why do you think loan sharks and tontine are so popular, despite MFI interests being so high as 7%? It's not because they trust and use banks, that's for sure. Maybe there is a facial recognition camera driving Cambodians to tontine?

Do you think the war where everyone lost everything has something to do with the general mistrust of financial institutions and a feel of need to spend while it lasts before it's gone?

C***y bar?

<edit>
Nah, that's a bit cheap. There's girls taking the opportunity when it comes along in every bar I guess.

He can chalk one up, lesson learned...
</edit>

It seems as though the common theme here is that once a person tries to pay for something the note comes back to them identified as fake / a copy.