Now that you pointed it out, it does not sound like a vouch at all. However malevolent is .01 BTC richer. I gather from looking more into this case, the send first deal seems to have been only good for one member. too bad; I could have used the .01 BTC. I'm definitely not going to send first now.
Knowing that malevolent is a staff member of this forum, the user can create
exceptions on who he is scamming so as to get some form of good rep, so I won't buy it even if malevolent got something out of the deal. If, maybe someone else apart from a staff member took the offer, it could have gone a different path. Til then we could only speculate.