Scammers

In online games there are players known as "scammers". These are the players who will try to leave a trade made with another player with the item they want, but they will not give the other player what they had agreed on. Scammers try to rip others off to benefit themselves. Below is an example of how a scam may follow through in a trade on an online game:

Player1 is our scammer, Player2 is our random player.
Player1: Hey, I'll buy your sword for 50,000 gold.
Player2: (Hmmm... that's 20,000 gold more than it's worth!) Okay. -In the trade- Player1 places 50,000 gold in the trade. Player2 places his/her sword in the trade. Player1 changes the amount of gold quickly to something that looks similar (5,000 gold for example). Player1 accepts the trade. Player2 accepts the trade. Player2 has now been scammed out of their sword. He/she has received much less gold than they would have received if they would have sold it without being scammed. Player1 now has received a cheap item and can keep it or sell it for more than they paid (5,000 gold).

A scam can only work if the person being scammed isn't paying attention. As long as the target is aware of what is going on and is cautious, they should be able to leave the trade without being scammed. Player2 shouldn't have to worry about scammers in games, but the reality is that they will always be around, and many games don't have "scam protection". If Player2 is too careless to pay attention to scams, he/she deserves to be scammed, in a sense.

Players on online games can also be scammed without even being on the game. Sometimes people will create websites with promises of "free gold", "free items", or other freebies for the game in exchange for their account info and password. If the target is selfish enough to want to cheat at the game or isn't intelligent enough to realize that these websites are trying to steal their accounts, they could be said to have deserved their losses.