At this time I would like to sincerely thank PatrickHarnett. He seems to be the only honest person left on these forums. I requested a withdrawal last night and received it in approximately 12 hours.
In light of the slew of scams recently, I've learned a few things:
- Don't do anything with BTC that you wouldn't do with cash
- Just because BTC is designed with the possibility of anonymity doesn't mean that all tx's should be anonymous
- Leave most of your money in cold storage
Again, thanks to PatrickHarnett for being trustworthy.
Your second point is important. From what I could see here, the people worth trusting with your BTC are those whose identity is known. I guess being identifiable and easily reachable (e.g., being in a country well represented on this forum, compared to being in South Korea) filters out dishonest people, who would prefer to stay anonymous for obvious reasons.