Blackberry Curve wants me to type "Blackberry".

[BNB]

I used my phone, laid it on the table and 3 hours later I went to check messages and did my usual password to open it and it asked me to type in "Blackberry". So, I thought this is weird, and I shut it off and started it again and same thing. So, I thought hmmm must be some sort of update going on, so I typed in blackberry. Then it asked me for my password. I thought okay, that was weird but I can now just enter my password. Hmm not taking my password. I saw it was counting how many times I was trying. Not knowing what the hell was going to happen when it made it to 10/10, I stopped at 8/10 and got on the internet to see what the heck was going on. So, what the heck is going on? I see that it says it's going to wipe out my phone on 10/10 tries. What does that mean? Do I lose all my contacts? I loaded up the CD's from my box thinking I could easily back up my contacts real quick, but stupid me didn't think about not being able to make the phone get that far. So, now what the heck do I do? Verizon store? I see some users in here think when people see this that they stole the phone. I'm 56 years old and I work and I don't need to steal a **bleep** phone from anybody....that's stupid. I don't know a lot about Blackberry's so I need some help here on this one. Thanks.

[LOWFLYER]

Sorry you're having trouble with your BB.  Here's what I dug up from another forum:

Here's what worked for me: enter blackberry as it requests. when it asks for your password, enter your password as you know it, even if strange type, letters instead of numbers, or numbers instead of letters appear on the screen. do NOT depress the shift, alt or any other key-- only the keys you would press to enter your password. it worked for me.... finally, after 3 full wipes of my device! argh.

Let us know how it goes.