Thank you guys. Ye all are truly amazing! I really appreciate the education! I have signed up for localcoinswap so I guess now I have to find someone "trustworthy" to send him/her $ and hope that they'll deposit the equivalent bitcoins into my localcoinswap account/wallet. It's a "coin toss" really...coz I can send the $ through say "western union" to someone, they get the dough and never deposit the coins in my wallet! Is there any way to minimize my risk here? Thanks