When do you get scammed during a relationship?

Borrowing money.

In general, if you don't lend money, you can't be scammed. Sure, some people bring up so-called "meal scams" or "drink scams," where scammers lure you into exorbitant spending. But at the end of the day, it's all the same game.

The way to avoid being scammed is simple—just two words: be honest.

Most people get scammed not because the other party is dishonest, but because they themselves are dishonest. You eat out alone for $50 a head, but when you treat someone else, you drop $5,000? Were you being honest? You know your entire savings total just $500,000, yet when she says her family needs saving, you hand it all over?

Millions of people starve to death in India every day, yet I never see you giving away a single penny. You know full well how many people on this planet live in helpless misery, yet you give nothing, and now you're telling me you're kind? Do you even believe that yourself? So why do you open your wallet when it's about them? There's only one answer: you want more.

This person's performance makes you feel like you're watching a tale of desperate sacrifice, and at the same time, you want both her body and her heart.

In reality, you've failed time and again and have never been taken seriously. Yet suddenly, you get to experience what it's like to hold someone's life in your hands. You imagine her being utterly devoted to you, like in those time-travel dramas where you flick your sleeve and everyone falls to their knees. In that moment, you get carried away—and then you hand over your ancestral $500,000. Isn't that exactly what's going through your mind?

Flip the genders, and it's the same with a scumbag's performance. You see a fallen prince, convinced that once you fund him, he'll bounce back in no time. You picture living in a Harry Potter-style castle with him, holding a silver platter with the WiFi password, imagining the thousands-fold returns he might bring you someday. And so you hand over your ancestral $500,000. Isn't that what you're really thinking?

This greed and obsession with the fantasy is what keeps you coming back.

The vast majority of people who claim they've been scammed were actually scamming themselves. They try to package themselves as something they're not, and that's exactly why they get fooled.

If you eat what you normally eat when you treat others, and gift what you normally use yourself, will scammers even bother? They won't give you the time of day.

Because面对 such an honest person, there's no way to scam them. When someone shows no greed, no restless discontent, they simply can't be scammed.