Thought on helping users defeat password locks
A few weeks ago, a new user posted saying he'd found a blackberry in the back of a taxi, but that it was locked, and asked if we could help him defeat the password. Several members responded, telling him (with varying degrees of politeness) to turn the phone in to the police or a carrier store. The new user responded with several vulgarities and the mods mercifully deleted the thread and presumably, his membership.
Now this thread has come up: http://forums.crackberry.com/f5/help...ckberry-37535/
I originally responded to help this user wipe his phone. He had a plausible (in my opinion) reason for wanting to do so. After a couple of problems, and with help from more than just me (in fact, my last suggestion was wrong!), he succeeded in wiping the phone and removing the password.
A couple of other users along with way raised the possibility that the phone had been stolen.
I don't like to think that I may have helped someone steal the use of a phone. Obviously, if it was lost or stolen, the owner most likely has notified the carrier, the phone will be useless, and we'll never hear from the user again. But there's still that doubt.
Is there a consensus in the community regarding helping people wipe a phone to delete a password? Anyone can read the forums and find what happens when you enter an incorrect password enough times, so I'm not worried about a determined thief who's willing to search for the info. He'll find it. And no one is going to help someone who logs on and brags about having stolen a phone!
But what about helping new users like the one in the thread I posted? Read the thread for yourself. Would you have helped him? Does the community have a consensus opinion regarding what to do in cases like this? I'd appreciate the guidance.