I do everything for you, and you do nothing for me.

Not being scammed is a complicated subject and may raise some hackles as it becomes mixed up with ideas about what scamming is, what taking advantage of other people is, and how it affects others in the game. There are several ways of looking at it, and this may be a long article. To begin with, I will treat some very basic ideas.

Part One When in doubt.

The most basic rule of not being scammed is, "when in doubt, don't do it!"
In any situation where you give your hard-earned Simoleons to another Sim in the hopes for a return or a profit, the possibility of being robbed exists. If you are buying a rare pet, investing in a property, entering a contest, or sending money home to Dan's Grove and you place the cash in someone else's hands, that person may take the cash and run.

Electronic Arts takes no responsibility for your Sim's satisfaction in the conduct of any monetary deal made between you and another person's Sim.

You need to remember this. If you misread the sign out front and believed that giving Joe Slick 250,000 Simoleons for a sure-fire shot at a rare tiger next Tuesday and accepted a tiki lamp as collateral, and Joe Slick does not exist next Tuesday, it will do no good, whatsoever, to report a sim who does not exist or protest about the loss of your 250,000 Simoleons. You will have purchased the most expensive tiki lamp in Simland. Period. You are on your own and sadder, but wiser, for the experience.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't."

If xoxSweetnInnocentxox tells you that for a deposit of 10,000 Simoleons, the Welcome lot MeatnGreet will give any newbie 1 million smackers for completing the maze on the lot and just before you get to the last door in the maze, "Oops, all the roomies have left the lot! Sorry," appears in your evicted city screen.... well.... I am not the only one who will say "I told you so."

"Just click Yes!"

You just paid Honest Abu 835,000 Simoleons for a collection of "bargain" junque that has 85% wear on it and costs more than the catalog cost in the first place? The secure transaction window and a little research into the basic cost of the items would have told you that. You might even find a junque store for real that had the same items for 83,500 Simoleons and would tell you upfront that they are used and prone to need more repairs. There's nothing that can be done for you.

Some basic rules for all transactions

1. You are on your own, when the money changes hands and the yes box is clicked. Think twice, and then think again.
2. You wouldn't give your money to a perfect stranger in real life. Don't do it in TSO.
3. You wouldn't fall for some gimmick that sounds totally preposterous in real life. Don't believe it in TSO either.
4. You wouldn't buy a car in real life, without at least looking at it. Sight unseen is no better in TSO than it is in the real world.

I might add, should you be confronted with the possibility of a crooked deal and you aren't sure about it, ask someone else, preferably not on the same property. Tell them you'll think about and go to a busy skill lot and say, "Excuse me, I'm new here, and someone just offered me a million Simoleons to stand on my head wearing a clown suit in a dance contest. What do you think? Can someone help me?" You'd be surprised. The great majority of Sims are honest folk and will provide you with good advice.

Dali Dalinza suggests that any Sim who wants to make an unsecured transaction, such as purchasing a property from another Sim, use an uninvolved third party (a Sim who takes possession of the payment money and the item being purchased and then makes the trade to each party). While it may not entirely eliminate scamming when purchasing a property or other non-tradable item, it can certainly reduce the number of cases where someone took the money and ran. A listing of intermediaries can be found here in the Real Estate forum.

For more information about common scams and how to prevent them, please read here and here (requires login).