
Social Psychology: Asian Drugged Baby Scam Exploit
Southeast Asia is a beautiful part of Earth. Tourists flock here by the millions each year to enjoy the year round tropical climate, sightsee, and souvenir shop. Tourists are carefree and have money to spend while enjoying the amenities.
As with anywhere on Earth, Southeast Asia also has a dark side. Scammers will attempt to fleece tourist fools. It’s up to tourists to ignore the scammers. However, social psychological manipulation is challenging to ignore, and I am a master. I decided to write about a few exploit observations to help other tourists.
Social psychology is the psychology of manipulation/exploitation. For millennia, clergy, politicians, snake oil salesmen, etc, have been manipulating the majority using the lessons from social psychology to fleece people of their cash.
As with any emerging market nation, the unscrupulous are always out to take advantage of the rich tourists. The scams work because idiot tourists continue to give to the scammers.
In this story, I’ll describe the exact same drugged baby scam I’ve seen in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, the Phillipines, Cambodia, and Thailand. I call it the Asian drugged baby scam exploit.

The basic social psychological exploit of manipulation works because seeing an, ‘In your face, raggedy-Anne, young poor female, carrying a baby,’ triggers emotional sorrow and a need to help in 96% of humans, normal humans. The remaining 4% are CEOs, Presidents, Prime Ministers, serial killers, etc, aka sociopaths but I digress. Normal humans believe they are helping the young mothers, plus it gives normal humans a warm fuzzy.
An aside: The baby trafficking mules never attempt to fleece a local because locals know it’s a scam.
The babies are drugged. For example, on Pub Street in Siam Reap, Cambodia or Kuta Beach, Bali, tourists will see young desperate looking ladies walking with babies from sunset to sunrise. If you get close enough to the babies when the sun is out then walk around the mother until the babies eyes are directly facing the setting sun. If the babies eye don’t constrict as the normal reaction to bright light then that’s a drugged baby, clue#1.

I’ve been around loads of normal Western and Eastern babies. The normal babies cry every few hours for food or attention; it’s really annoying. In the Asian drugged baby human trafficking scam, the babies don’t cry for 8-12 hours, clue#2.
After the babies are sufficiently drugged, the young, rag-tag, lady mules rent or borrow local babies from the orphanages, greedy parents, and/or meth shanty towns as is the case in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The low level mules will walk around with the trafficked babies using the social psychological exploit of reciprocity, actually hacking it.
In normal reciprocity, for example, a church sermon gives you false hope (a grandiose gift) in exchange for some money (a small gift). In the drugged baby scam, the mules give tourists ‘sad puppy eyes’ hoping they’ll get tourists’ cash without actually exchanging a gift, a simple reciprocity hack.
Today, I saw a kid no more than 10 walking around with a baby. In Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, it’s definitely likely a 10 yr old has a baby because of their fucked up religious book, but Christianity waits a bit longer, most of the time, haha. The funds collected go straight to the gangs/motor clubs (MC) or in Cambodia’s case, the military; it’s a racket.

Each time a tourist gives money to a low level gangbanger/MC mule then it encourages the gangs to continue the social psychological exploit. As a result more babies and children are human trafficked in this classic human exploit.
The best solution to stop the drugged baby scam or any scam for that matter is don’t give to the scammers. Pretend towards sociopathy while on vacation. It will save you from being a sucker, and it will also cut down on the drugged baby human trafficking scam.
An aside: a similar scam uses disabled people, and the cash goes to the same human trafficking gangs.
It should go without saying but never be mean to the mules. Their handlers are ALWAYS nearby and will set you up for police trouble if the police are in on the ruse, highly likely in emerging markets. Ignoring the scam is always best.
Of the listed countries above, Thailand was the only country in 3 years of travel to clean up the majority of the tourist street scams. It made for an enjoyable walk in 2017.
Tourists, been warned, don’t be a sucker and good luck!
Further reading
Cambodia scams: The powdered milk scam
https://www.movetocambodia.com/siem-reap/cambodia-scams-the-powdered-milk-scam/
The 7 Psychological Principles of Scams: Protect Yourself by Learning the Techniques
Inside the Mind of a Sucker: The Psychology Behind Times Square Scams
https://observer.com/2016/04/inside-the-mind-of-a-sucker-the-psychology-behind-times-square-scams/
The Real Hustle Season 1 Episode 1
