People being hacked since the last Server Check.

Can you drop the ring?
And does locking the ring work?
(I'm assuming that your character can't be deleted because your still married to someone and in order to divorce you have to return the ring)
Can the NPC take away a locked ring?

You cannot drop the ring.
Locking it does nothing.

To sow fear, obviously.
There are numerous reasons to do so, from the simple desire to feel superior by trolling everyone else into panic, to driving perceived competition to quit or covering your own tracks or getting people to waste time and money making themselves look ridiculous.
Pretending people are rational and/or do things for the same motivations as you is just silly, narrow and naive.

Likewise, pretending people are all devious and do everything for sadistic motivations is just silly, narrow, and naive.
You can cite all the hypothetical scenarios you can muster, but the fact that people are acting in a collaborative manner to gather information speaks against all that you've suggested.

Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat.

Oh, and Eos, I do hope you remember your own words for the sake of the future.
I'm sure I will.

What about dropping the ring? Same effect or no? Unfortunately a 70% pot scroll worked on mine, but I still have it in my inventory.

Can't be dropped.

Though now I'm confused since you could Potential yours but someone else reported that her friend couldn't...