1) Don't just trust the status of a member, anyone can be a hero member. This just means that he invested some time on his membership. He can always decide that a profitable scam will be a good payment for his time.
2) If he has no reputation (specially if he is a newbie or Jr.), even small tranches are very risky. Better use an escrow system, like the one of http://www.bitmit.net, www.btcrow.com, or a trusted member, or you might need to send more than 10 very small tranches. Think well before sending more than 0.2 btcs (it's considerable money in some countries) and only after successful payments of 0.1 and 0.15 btcs.


Since this thread is a sticky, I decided to post this here. Any moderator or member feel free to move, copy or improve these rules at will.