all bussness still can risky but you can minimum to risk
if you want loan you must use colletaral, is safe two person, if give and receive loan, and you not trust open service lending
you can use escrow, so pay escrow receiver loan
The risk can be minimize of course and that depends on how we treat and mange the risk, lending business is a lucrative business in the real world but online there's a bigger risk as though we can require a borrower a collateral,
it's not safe still since collateral are not valuable as we expected.A good collateral is a in demand collateral and digital goods is not that in demand especially BTCtalk accounts.
That's why when you read the sticky thread in the lending board, you will see that they are suggesting that you only accept collateral that are 120% of the borrowed amount. There are also some guidelines on how to choose if the collateral is a good thing to take. You can always deny people's request if you don't trust them and you don't like their collateral. I see people getting denied a lot in lending threads. No question there.
I just want to add that a "good" collateral right now might not be a good one anymore at the date of payment so always be cautious when accepting loans.