1

Honestly ark, I have little sympathy. I do admire your willingness to help, but to give money to someone because he/she is eloquent and talks the talk? Would you do that back home? Probably not, right? I have seen these sort of cons in many countries where visitors are just to gullible and get suckered in.

2

You gave $1000 to a tuk-tuk driver to do what?

3

SH's way is the way to go (as far as paying tuition is concerned)..

4

oh! nice that you can support someone to have school , but that is really much for school .
I don't know what is he study ? some of Cambodian they just want your money.
I got sponsor from Holland and she always pay for my university and pay every semester and the cost only $ 200 .
I really like it and really thankful because I want to study and I got sponsor ....

some of Cambodia student they want to study but they can't because of the University expensive ..
$200 is really expensive for poor student..

5

I can't see what the problem is? I always remember a driver I had in Bali who said that he did not know how his family could have ever survived without the kind donations of funds from a family in Toronto, Canada. He had so much respect for the country based on that help.
I send children to school in Nepal and it costs me $5250.00 annually. I always gave money to charities, but I decided direct to the people was better, and that $100 or $200 here and there is not enough anymore. It has to be significant enough to change their lives and prospects for the future. I know the family well, and they are great people who happen to live in a perpetually messed up economic region.

6

The problem is when you start forking over cash without a healthy dose of scepticism first. I have lived in Africa and Asia all my life; if I had given money to everyone that had a sob story and appeared sincere, I would have squandered a fortune worth of Bill Gates by now.

7

Is it really that difficult to understand? The tuk-tuk driver is scamming gullible tourists out of money.

8

I agree with those stating that 1000$ are far too much for a school and luckily it wasn't us - the whole story was revealed when I received an email from the guy who developed the webpage for Mil and where I left an encouraging comment that people should hire him as a driver.

The guy who build the webpage contacted everybody on the page and it was him who send him so much money. We did exactly the same as Hanno and paid an English school directly after some research. At the end of the term we even got a "sponsorship overview" with his attendance and overall performance.

We were fooled when it came to the subsequent class for what I send him 85$ directly. After a while the school contacted me asking for the money. I wrote him a mail and he apologized, asking for more money after some time. He didn't get it and I am fine as insofar that those people have much less than us and 100$ normally doesn't kill us and even scammed away might be a better investment than a pair of trainers at home...

9

Is it all you can do is complain about your Tuk Tuk and Guides in Cambodia?