Cambodia Poipet - a warning

Scam central. An unholy welcome to an otherwise fascinating country.
Travellers coming overland by bus from Bangkok need to be warned about the stop-over in the border town of Poipet: a place which gets bad write-ups in tour guides such as Lonely Planet. It isn't a town with any inhentent attraction, but rather, seems to serve as "hustle-central" for scam artists who see easy prey in backpackers.
Scams include:
Visa-entry charges that don't exist. Officials are known to insist on taxes that don't exist. Check out the going conditions of entering Cambodia.
Money changers. A recent practice is to tell bus travelelrs that this is the last chance to change their money because there are "no banks in Siem Reap." Don't believe it. Siem Reap has good western banks and they offer way better rates than the money changers.
Bars and other local enetertainments including gambling can be rip-off establishments enforced by some mean strong-arm types.
Pick-pockets.
Transport arrangements. Most buses coming through Poipet have arrangements with Siem Reap guest houses and hotels, and will tend to deliver at a later hour at night than you expect, at the Guest House who has paid the driver. Attempts to extricate from 'their" choice of accommodaiton aren't always easy, and can turn ugly (On the flip side, in Cambodian terms a payment to the driver is just normal marketing - it's what you do to get business, and local guest houses, having paid over good money, can hurt badly when these visitors walk).
If you are travelling via Poipet, which many thousand do each year (air travel is relatively expensive) then good advice is to do the following:
Do your homework. Travel with a reputable bus company if you can find one - and don't settle for the super budget deals. Check out the internet for other reviews of Poipet. Some sites make this entry look pretty mild.
Make a good friends with a fellow passenger. Stick together, watch each other's bags and haggle together. Don't travel "alone."
Wear hidden money belts.
Be wary. In this town the bad things you've heard are true.
Don't change your money here. There is no need to.
Be clear with the bus driver that you want to be delivered to the bus station because you're being met there.
Travel with a mobile phone so you can contact your place of accommodation if required.
If he takes you to another lodging anyway, then tell the manager of that establishment that you are not booked there and wish to catch a cab to your chosen place. Above all be polite in this situation and don't get heated or angry (big cultural faux pas) but be firm. Tell him you've already made other arrangements. Be polite about it. Thanks but no thanks.
Poipet is in the view of many people who travel through there a disgrace to Cambodia's young tourism infrastructure.
By and large Cambodia is a safe country to travel in, but in a land rated globally as one of the most corrupt on our planet, little national effort is made to clean up this border town. So long as the scam artists run free (and so long as tourists remain gullible) Cambodia is going to risk hurting one of its main revenue earners in tourism.