You must have reasons to form such opinion, I hope, because "what's he got to lose at this point" is rather poor standard. By that standard I am scammer in the making, fully anonymous, not rich enough to scoff at free 100 BTC, and have nothing to lose by pulling quick trick and abandoning account. It just would be out of my character. But as I said, I don't know the man, and you could be as well right, just finding "nothing to lose" reasoning rather poor.
For the record, I'm not defending Matt and likable argument doesn't fly with me, I pretty much despise this hypocritical, narcissistic assclown. I was quite annoyed by the community, praising him and never passing the chance to stick tongue up his ass, and I find it funny that it had to take failed bet (money) for them to see through his bullshit.
If someone has no/bad reputation, no ties to the community, and nobody to vouch, then yes they absolutely are someone you should be careful of dealing with, and possibly a potential scammer. I wouldn't trust some faceless guy walking down the street, why should I trust someone I only know on the internet? I may not distrust them, but I don't trust them either. Certainly not gonna give them cash and send them on their way.
I usually use escrow, even when selling. Customers have no reason to trust me either if they don't know me, and I understand and accept that.
I agree with you completely, "Trust nobody because they're out to rip you apart" should be default stance in Bitcoin community.
However my point was lost somewhere along the the way, maybe I didn't communicate myself clearly. I spoke in context of Matt, you accused him of plotting petty scams, to which I replied that from my impression of the guy, I think it would be out of his character to act in such way (despite my low opinion of him). You rebutted my argument citing "nothing to lose at this point" reasoning, something I disagree with, saying that if someone has certain morals then "nothing to lose" position won't change that.
But as I said earlier, I don't know him beyond reading his posts and can be wrong with my opinion. There is also possibly of him being sociopath and trying to take revenge on the community for kicking his ass out of here. Perhaps you know more what's going on around than I do, being much more involved with the community, and have good reasons to back your opinion, but you didn't voice them in this thread.