Cambodian Border Scam

[smx1313]

This might be old news to old hands.

Went to Cambodia/Poipot (sp?) last week via train.

It was my 1st visa run and I pretty much had my hand help by a friend.

Once at the stop (whose name I can't spell, aran....something) we hired a tuk tuk to the border.

The tuk tuk took us to a small building with a buncha guys wearin polo shirts with a Cambodia logo embroidered on it and an ID tag that said "ID".

They approached us and said that we needed to fill out a visa form to get into Cambodia, handing us the forms.

There was a picinic table there, sitting at it were some asian men filling out the form.

This just did not past the gut test.

My friend said she had never seen this before.

They guys kept presuring us to fill out the visa form.

"Lets get out of here" I said.

We could see a cluster of building up the road and headed for them.

Turned out to be the "real" border.

As for the guys filling out the forms, I think they were there to salt the mine.

Didnt get far enough into the scam to see how much they wanted, but clearly the tuk tuk driver was in on it.

[jeebusjones]

A similar experience happened to me about two years ago. I didn't stick around either, but it would probably have resulted in an overpriced Cambodian visa -- say an extra 500 baht or so.

[torrenova]

The guys would probably have charged you Bt100 each for the entry and exit stamps from Cambodia and they would probably have wanted Bt1000 for the USD20 Cambodian visa instead of the Bt700 or so that USD20 is worth now.

Likely not a scam as such but just them trying to make some cash. At Poipet, we made the mistake one time of not paying them the Bt200 each thinking it was a scam and we were left out in the baking sun waiting for our passports. Other people who paid the cash were in and out in minutes.

[farangsay]

All these reports are a good advertisement for the organised visa-run

as opposed to the diy version.

I've done 2 in the last 3 months (to Ban Laem) which were absolutely

hassle free. We didn't even have any contact with Cambodian immigration.

All the forms (Thai and Cambodian) were provided and completed before

leaving Bangkok. On the Cambodian side their people take care of everything.

Lunch in the casino , buy some "duty free" and get your passport back fully

stamped up.

[percy2]

All these reports are a good advertisement for the organised visa-run

as opposed to the diy version.

I've done 2 in the last 3 months (to Ban Laem) which were absolutely

hassle free. We didn't even have any contact with Cambodian immigration.

All the forms (Thai and Cambodian) were provided and completed before

leaving Bangkok. On the Cambodian side their people take care of everything.

Lunch in the casino , buy some "duty free" and get your passport back fully

stamped up.

There is no difference between the guys who own the buses and offer an " organized " visa run service from Bangkok or Pattaya and the Gguys in the yellow polo shirts that are also offering and " orgnized " visa service.

People have just got to make a choice as to which if any service to use.

I wouldn't use any of these services , but thats just my opinion.

Cheers

[makrook]

I perfectly agree with the statement above.

live in thailand ? so maybe it's about time to learn a bit the language and the way to make things here .

never had any problem with the DIY option, even in poipet, even to enter my motorcycle into cambodia (wich was reportedly almost impossible ... 5mns talking at the border and in we go...)