Hi sclerogal, Silk Road is a free-market based marketplace. As a result, vendors are free to set their own policies regarding how and with whom they do business, as long as they do not violate the terms of the seller contract that they agree to abide by upon becoming a vendor. There is nothing you can do if your vendor requires people with a certain transaction level to FE. Once they have reached 35+ transactions, and have been a vendor for one month or more, they are entitled to ask buyers to FE if they wish to do so. I'm glad to see you've read the Wiki; however, it does not state to report the vendor for requesting that buyers FE: http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/wiki/index.php?title=Buyer%27s_Guide#Escrow http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/wiki/index.php?title=Buyer%27s_Guide#Payment What the above refer to is sending the vendor BTC directly to their username rather than through the site checkout and escrow system. All orders placed with the "place order" button are automatically placed in escrow. When you FE, you willfully leave the safety of that and are left completely unprotected. Silk Road enforces the policy of 'no direct payments' by immediately stripping a vendor of their vending privileges if they are found to be in breach of that policy. As far as FE is concerned, there are many vendors that accept new members but do not require them to leave the safety of escrow until their order has arrived and they are fully satisfied with it. Regardless of what any vendor may ask you to do, Silk Road recommends that you never, ever FE. I hope that I've sufficiently answered your questions but if not, just let me know and I can clarify. Libertas