Exactly, and when you're an American and you're in a cab in America that's the best case scenario -- you can probably avoid paying it with enough effort.

When this happened to me in Vietnam is was a pretty ugly situation. I'm not new to world travel, but the driver had the whole con down to an art (dubious toll fees, relationships with local law enforcement, etc) This was just before Uber came to Vietnam and I would never use a local taxi driver again regardless of cost.

Everyone in this thread who defends the airport cabbie cartels of the world must have not actually spent a lot of time around them.