But how do you know the person selling you isn't a fed setting a honeypot?
You don't. Same as you don't when selling IRL for cash.
From whitepaper:
Limitations
● The duration of the payment transfer limits the speed of the trade process
● Only non-reversible payment transfer methods will be supported (risk of chargebacks)
● Personally identifying information will be leaked between trading partners as part of the
payment transfer
● Should not be used in jurisdictions where Bitcoin is illegal (risk from trading with
undercover agents)
● You must already have bitcoin to pay small registration and trade fees and for security
deposits
So if buying/selling bitcoins is illegal in your jurisdiction it will not guarantee you're 100% safe.
unless you do the transaction p2p IRL there is a chance that you are getting scammed.
The are mechanisms protecting from scams. Check the
whitepaper. I don't know how will this work out in practice and how secure will it be. We'll just have to wait and see.