Originally Posted by Maxwell Smart

And often times, once you express your willingness to pay the duty and/or do things in an official way, the corrupt customs officers are no longer interested in you. My experiences:

1. I brought more alcohol than allowed (my mistake, I had misread the allowance amount, and was 0.5L over). Customs guy was obviously looking for a bribe to let it go, and I told him I'd be happy to pay the duty, and to please go get me the appropriate paperwork to do so. He disappeared, never to return, and while I was waiting for him, another customs guy just told me I was free to leave.

2. I had some personal electronics (laptop, portable CD player, etc.) that I was told would require a duty payment (and was hinted that a bribe would take care of it). I told them these were items that I would be taking back with me, and to please have my passport noted as such so I could show the items to customs inspectors upon departure. Suddenly they decided it was no longer an issue and let me leave.