Quote from: Billybanjo5 on Today at 01:50:10 AM

A trusted member messaged me after I asked about buying btc and said we could do a transaction. They assured me because they were a trusted member and had a reputation to keep, that I could feel safer about getting my coin. I was paying pay pal and because I had no recourse I only wanted to do a fairly small transaction to test it. The trade went fine and the btc was delivered as promised. I did one or two more transactions over the next week or two and again it went smooth. So my question is, is a trusted forum reputation enough to trust someone? I’m at the point now where I want to buy a substantial amount and it is too much money for me to feel comfortable doing the same type of trade. What should I do or suggest to the seller? An escrow of some kind? Thanks for your help.

I suggest to buy directly in exchange than bough it in individual members here.
Reputation is very important here in this forum however it will not guarantee that they will not going to scam you someday. Having an escrow is big help but you need to also paid fees for the service they provide instead of paying fees why not use exchange its almost the same.