Never deal with a newbie at all. But if you really want to do then always go for escrow.
Looks like cryptodevil already tagged him as a ponzi operator so you should have been cautious of the fact!
We were all newbies once and not all of them are bad but like you mentioned OP should have been careful since he was dealing with a Ponzi operator and yes, escrow should be used where ever possible, although it is hard to hire one for $2 deals.
OP did you made a deal with him on the forum or just
invested donated money to his ponzi?
For future, do what I did, Go to your "Profile->Ignore Boards Preferences" and block the complete ponzi section out, you won't even see any posts from their in "Recent Unread Topics" list.