In nearly almost every circumstance I would say never FE, hard for new buyers I know who need to build stats etc but if you can stay in escrow it massively reduces your chances of being ripped off. The best advice is to research the shit out of the vendor you are considering buying from before taking the plunge as that also gives you much more security. However in saying all that I do FE on a regular basis with one trusted stealth only vendor to get my coke from an o/s. This however is a trusted relationship on both sides so being scammed isn't a risk, it's not normally like that so as a general rule still try to use the escrow system, it's there for good reason.