How to get ripped off in South East Asia
First off, I want to say that this is not exclusive to SEA, these sorts of scams exist around the world but these are quite prevalent in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam. For some reason, I never experienced these and others like them in Singapore and Laos: They may exist there as well but I have never heard of them happening.
It's quite simple to figure out and identify, you just gotta keep your guard up. If you do get ripped off by this it probably won't be that big of a deal or even that expensive for you, it just kind of sucks when it happens.
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The really cheap transport or tour scam
This happens at major tourism areas around the world but there is an old saying that can prevent you from getting ripped off in these situations: "If it sounds too good to be true, it is because it isn't true."
You will be offered absurdly low prices on "tours of the city" by the hawks that hang around major backpacking areas that are constantly looking for prey. You will be offered a trip to a temple, a park or museum, and a market, for the crazy low price of something like $1. Alarm bells should be going off at this point and maybe the value of the entire country (compared to where you are from) have you believing that this is just how much it costs but don't be fooled because you are not going to get a tour at all.
Instead you will quickly be ushered to a very small temple with not much to see, then taken to a "park" that is the size of your front garden, then you get taken to what the real feature of the trip is, a tailor or a gem store where they have high-pressure sales representatives that are going to try to get you to buy their wares.
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I know this information because it happened to me. I was a novice fool. Inside the tailor they block you off in a room with a meeting where you are measured without even being asked if you want to be and then a bunch of options will be presented to you in a rather aggressive fashion (pun intended) almost as though you had already agreed to buy some suits. The only way you can get out of this is to be insistent that you are not going to buy anything and the attitude starts to almost feel dangerous.
I ran back out to my tuk-tuk only to find that the guy was not going to drive me anywhere until I bought something and I had no idea where I was. After realizing that this guy was going not take me back to where I came from I flagged down a cab only to have the drive shout at the cab driver to not take me anywhere. Thankfully my cab driver was an honest dude and when we finally drove away the driver of the cab (who spoke English) kept telling him that I owed him money, which I clearly did not.
I would imagine that a ton of people just capitulated and bought some suits, which do not come in very handy in south east Asia anyway due to the heat and the fact that you don't really have space for them in your bag anyway. The gem scam is a lot better known so I don't think many people fall for that much anymore but it is still part of the process
Basically, don't wander around the town and let drivers tell you where you are going to go, know your destinations first, and have a good idea about what it costs to get there. Even better, use a taxi app like Grab taxi (Asia's version of Uber) and use that exclusively.
The free snacks and goodies at bars scam
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It's easy to feel like a "king in a castle" while budget traveling because prices generally speaking are a lot lower in South East Asia for just about everything and this extends to bars and clubs as well. The problem you will encounter is when the staff start bringing things to your table that you did not order.
This happened to my group somewhere in Malaysia. I think it was Penang. We were just ordering beers and all of a sudden they brought by plates of peanuts and some wet-wipe cool towels that no one ordered. Us having western mentalities, we presumed that these were just some nice "thank you for being a customer" add ons that they give to everyone but that was not the case at all. The peanuts were replenished even before we finished them and after we had our 4 pitchers of beer between us we asked for the bill
The bill contained peanuts and wet-wipes on it for an extremely high markup and these unexpected costs were more than triple the cost of the beers that we went into the bar to drink in the first place.
Even if it makes you feel stingy when doing so, always ask if anything that is brought to your table is free or not or just say "how much?" If the answer is not provided simply give them back and make sure they do take them away. I have been in a situation where a plate of fruit was brought to the table where none of us even touched it but were still charged $20 for around $1 worth of fruit. Despite the fact that we did not eat or even touch the plate of mixed fruit it was still on the bill. When we said we would not pay for it, the owner and staff threatened to call the police.
In any situation where "police" get involved you can be all but guaranteed that the police are in cahoots with the establishment and therefore you are not actually going to be receiving any unbiased arbitration on behalf of the authorities.
These two scams can be easily avoided if you just remember that "nothing is free" and any time that someone offers something to you for free and it is not inside of your hotel or hostel, there is a very good chance that it is not only not free, but will have a 600% markup on it as well. Just keep your head on a swivel and realize that there are a lot of people out there that are trying to relieve you of your money in lots of places.