Almost everyone seem to know someone that they can trust, I pity you guys because it's like you are all living in a different world, you don't listen to news and things happening around the world atleast?
I pity those who don't have anyone around that they can trust. Don't get me wrong, you should be extremely careful when dealing with IRL birtcoin transaction, but to be in constant fear and paranoid about it? No thnx.
I personally did dozens of such transactions and had no issues so far. Having said that, I am very careful who I am dealing with+luckily I live in a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world which probably also helps.
Normally many of us wouldn't like to do our p2p transactions on exchanges but we don't have much choice but to use them for peace of mind so we don't get scammed. Most of us prefer easy peer to peer with a second party without going through a third party but we also need to consider the cost of this easy face to face or through a trusted party. If you don't know the source of coins of sender or if the person will escape after receiving our coins it's better to decline. Due to the many problems associated with peer to peer I don't have a choice but to rely on exchange for my coin transactions to be on the safer side but whenever I can get a recommendable and trusted person I wouldn't mind to do the transaction with him.