If you are in a destination, where
online poker is illegal, like most of the US, then its obviously a grey zone, and there are no really safe options. You are probably going to need to deposit with bitcoin or something similar to get around the ban of transferring money to or from
gambling sites, and if something goes wrong, there is no government, who is going to help you get your money back.
So its pretty much the same as playing live poker in a private game in someones basement. I am not saying, you should not do it, but talking about "trusted sites" is meaningless, when its basically an illegal activity. I recently wrote a thread about ACR with the title "your funds are not safe on ACR", and the same can be said for any of the unregulated sites. So either dont play or keep as little money as possible on the site. Losing 100$ is not the end of the world, but potentially losing say 10.000$ due to lack of dilligence is just plain stupid.