The only sure-fire way to prevent becoming a victim is to wait for confirmations.
Wrong. There are no "100%-safe" ways at all.
First way is "risky & cheap". Second way is "no-so-risky as first, but not-so-cheap"
Bitcoin itself is risky. If you do not want to be a victim - pay to third party banks and use your national currency.
You are my personal hero of the day.
The really juicy bit about this thing is that the core developers don't want to fix it because it might prevent future vaporware uses of the bitcoin protocol to be established.
Also, see my sig.