You have secured collateral.
You know the person in real life and they are trustworthy.
You are prepared to have your account locked. PayPal, for example, does this all the time. They are not going to help you get your money back, they are going to lock your account because you have violated their TOS.
Having said that, sorry to hear about your loss. Crooks are awful.
![Angry](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/angry.gif)