Why Did I get Downed Ten Points Randomly?

It wouldn't be random. Perhaps you had been awarded a Best Answer and then the question was reported and deleted. That would explain it. Or maybe your BA was reported, but you would have a VN if that was the case.

EDIT:

VN is a Violation Notice. You get them from Y!A when you are reported if it results in a question or answer being deleted

1. Correction-you've lost 12 points, instead of 10, because of your incurring a violation in your answer.

2. "I don't know" is never answer because it's construed as point-gaming. You've gamed the system for points like that. It's a form of cheating here. You have the option of either answering the question or just not do it at all, minus posting "I don't know" as an answer-this doesn't benefit the Answers community at all.

Go here to read more about the very violation you've incurred, as explained in great detail by the Y!A Team: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/answers/abuse/gui...

3. As for the VN you're asking about, this is a reference to a Violation Notice email that you got from Customer Care as a result of you being reported for point-gaming. That means you must cease all illegal activity here before you risk losing your Y!A account by permanent suspension (Community Guidelines), or even the outright termination of your Y! ID without warning (Terms of Service).

It sounds like you were penalized for a bad answer. You will find it is not just the curses or subject matter, but bad attitude,. They call it " not answering a question".+ So try to be nice.

You were a bad boy . . . come here and let me spank you!