The research literature is replete with discussions of ethnography as a met
hodology involving deception, especially in the conduct of participant obse
rvation. When such research involves forging trusting relationships with ac
tive drug users - who develop many skills in deception during their 'career
s in dope' - deception may be used as much by, subjects in dealing with res
earchers as it is used by researchers in dealing with subjects. The element
of deception increases further in ethnographic studies of AIDS prevention
efforts for injection drug users (IDUs). Here ethnographers work to forge t
rusting relationships with outreach workers, who have been hired by prevent
ion projects to forge trusting relationships with IDUs in the community to
help protect themselves from HIV. In this paper, I discuss some deceptions
basic to participant observation in virtually all social settings, with exa
mples taken from my research of outreach workers and their dealings with ID
Us in working to combat HIV, I then discuss some common deceptions run by o
utreach workers against the projects in which they work, and in their deali
ngs with ethnographers.