There was a user who wanted to pay for evil fee or copper membership, but theymos mistakenly sent him some btc, as new as s/he was and having joined the forum with a concealed ip, s/he chosed to return the btc. He recieved enough positive feedbacks without waiting for him to reach 5 years in the forum
When there is a financial transaction there is no necessary for time. When I send you 500$ means anyone can trust me for 500$. For example, you send me 500$ btc and then I send you 500$ eth or something else. This means you should trust me for this 500$. Even others can do the same. So, the main factor is not the time in this case.
Lets us discuss another scenario:
You have no financial transactions but you are working a lot of time on the forum and you have found out few scams (it might be one too) you have reached sr member/hero member then anyone can trust you. Because you will not scam a few hundred dollars. Though it can be different if you have no earned merit and all of your merit is from airdrop.