I like to hypothesize about how scambots would work in an in-game context.
I could envision them popping up only during special month-long events in which you have the option to either:
1) help scambots take over cog buildings and create "pop-up's", which are shady temporary businesses. They promise to give you a cut of the profits for each building, but it's a gamble because you're working for conmen. You'll either get great rewards (generally for higher level buildings), or junk. Everyone that helps the scambots gets a scambot intern outfit at the end of the event. Maybe the top toons that help get a scambot business card, which works like an sos card? idk.
Or 2) help cogs by taking out scambots and their pop-up establishments. You'll earn cogbucks/merits/whatever. Won't be as profitable in the end, but will definitely be easier.
Scambots themselves would probably walk on sidewalks, around buildings, on the streets, and can be (rarely) found hiding in cog buildings/factories/hq. They don't walk in a line like cogs do and vary in speed from very fast (loopholer, quick change) to very slow (pyramid schemer).
In a regular battle (i.e. you're fighting a lawbot and a scambot joins) Scambots could have a 50/50 chance of attacking a toon or a cog on their turn. They can also interrupt other turns, butt in, or run away.
A scambot-only battle would be similar to a normal cog battle, except you'd have to defeat them before they run away/escape. Their chances of escape are more likely on earlier turns than when their meter is blinking red.
As far as attacks/stats go, most scambots just have low health but ridiculously high attacks (schemer, hush money, sweet talker, scalper), high health but crappy attacks (identity thief, quick change, con artist), and some are unique and hard to fight because they really break the mold of traditional cog battles in that they have no attacks but a ridiculously high chance of evasion and escape (loopholer).
Or they have average attacks but can cause "status effects". Like Bait & Switch can heal themselves by baiting toons into toon-upping them via fake-crying. Bamboozlers are the absolute worst to fight. They have a special attack called "Bamboozle!', and the effects are completely random. Effects range from high damage, extremely low damage, skipping turns, inverting the camera, swapping sound effects, (very rarely) turning themselves into a normal cog, or even causing toons to get temporary toon effects (big toon, invisible toon, etc).
Fighting in Scambot pop-up's would operate like a regular building, albeit with scambots inside so the unpredictability is what makes it ~challenging~. The only differences is that elevators go down instead of up, the building is poorly constructed so pieces can "fall apart" and cause damage to cogs and toons, and each floor has a Bamboozler in it. Also, no one cog says "I'm the boss!" and means it. A cog says "I'm the boss!", "I'm the REAL boss.", "The guy on the last floor was lying. I'm the boss.", "Boss is on lunch!", "We're all bosses I guess?" "I forgot my line!" or some sort of variation on every floor. The boss is always the pyramid schemer on the final floor.
Scambot HQ is inaccessible to toons and cogs, but there'd be a manhole in Donald's Dock that a toon could stand on, say "You Stink!" and a disgruntled scambot noise would happen.
and yeah. I'll probably add more later lol.
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