Sadly online trading games are subject to unscrupilous players who will try and scam others out of their hard earned resources.
Here we are going to try and highlight scams, how to avoid them and how to report scammers so they can't prosper.
Note that TSO will not reimburse players who lose out by improper use of the Trade system. The trade system is intended as a straight 1 for 1 swap system and anything above and beyond that is at the users risk.
Delayed Trade Scam[]
A player convinces you to trade them for multiple expensive items for something comparitively worthless in multiple trades.
Be extremely careful with when considering any trade that isn't on a 1 for 1 basis as there is no guarentee or implied relationship over multiple trades and not how the system is intended for use.
Friend Spam Trade Scam[]
Sometimes a friend will spam you with offers while you are offline in the hopes you will accept the trade without noticing.
This is a tough one as it is down to you to check your trades before accepting them.. and when you have a screenfull of them it is easy to simply hammer the accept button.
Players like this should be deleted from your friends and placed on your blocked list.
Friend Trade Swap Scam[]
A friend sends a trade to you that mirrors one you have in the Trade system but reversed in the hopes you accept by mistake.
Example: Say you are asking 100 Granite for 200 Marble in the Trade system. The scammer sends you a friend trade (Friend Trades and Trade System Trade emails look identical) but reversed so you lose 100 Granite and gain 200 Marble. This relies on you making a simple mistake but a mistake that is yours none the less.
Players like this should be deleted from your friends and placed on your blocked list.
Premium Item Trade Scam[]
A player offers to gift you a Gem bought gift from the store for mutiple trades (usually Gold Coins).
The scam works by having the mark send 400 Gold Coins for 1 Fish then another round, etc on the promise they will be gifted a high value Gem item afterwards only to find the user logs out without making the gift.
There are forums on the game where people have attempted to setup a trust system to rate and ensure this kind of trade can be done safely but is totally unsanctioned by the developers. There is no way to ensure that the person you are trading with is the same person behind their avatar. Scammers could be using a similar avatar name to take advantage of the reputation of others in the community.