I think nexon should take account security more seriously, especially given their past data breach.
Item guards should be 100% free. Its kind of outragoues that they arent.
Item guards should also be permanent, working more like character deletion, but could have a longer time before the item is freed. When you delete a character there is a 24 hour window before it is officially deleted. Permanent (and free) Item guards could be “unlocked” at the users request, but then remain locked for a given amount of time, such as 24 hours, or 7 days.
A request to delete a character or remove an item guard should trigger an email, it would be the account holders responsibility to pay attention to said email account. A request to remove several item guards at once should raise a red flag and perhaps require logging a ticket, identity verification, and having GM approval.