How to buy USDT usually comes down to two routes. A regulated exchange is the first: the buyer opens an account, verifies identity and funds it by card or bank payment, then keeps the coins there or withdraws them to a personal wallet. The other route is a person to person deal inside the exchange, where the platform keeps the coins locked until the seller confirms the payment arrived. Such deals carry their own traps, from money that turns out to be stolen to counterparties who ask to finish the trade outside the platform, where no protection is left.
Is USDT safe? It depends on which risk is meant. Its price moves far less than bitcoin, but its value rests on trust in one company and in reserves that ordinary holders cannot inspect. During a crisis the peg can slip, so USDT can lose part of its value, and well known stablecoins have traded below their peg for hours and sometimes days. The issuer can also freeze specific addresses, as it has done with funds tied to fraud, and the holder then has no way to move them. Offers of high interest on USDT carry high risk or are scams.