Yes, there are a bunch of horrible, selfish people in this game that think their trades are fair. But I suspect that your issue is seeing trades that are not in your discovered area yet. For any non-discovered trades, the trader adds an additional 50% fee making the trade a 1 star. Every trade in your trader that has a yellow bubble with an exclamation point in it is a trade outside your area. You can hover over those to see what the trade would be if you scout to those players.
If you are not in a fellowship, join one. Once in a fellowship, you will be able to trade with many players and avoid a fee for doing so.