I was wondering why I got 15 instagram password reset emails over the weekend. It also reminded me I had an instagram account, which I promptly tried to log into and delete.
I created the account when instagram first came out, never used it, and totally forgot about it. I got stuck in a strange position where I had to login from a device I had previously logged in from, but because it's been over a decade, I no longer have any of the devices I might have used to create/access the account.
I still have access to both the email and phone number used for the account, but that was not good enough.
How hilariously incompetent. I filed a CCPA complaint.
I got locked out of some old gmail accounts in a similar way - they were created without phone numbers and while I have the passwords, I get flagged for suspicious activity when I try to log in, and there's no actionable recovery flow.
If there's no recovery email address set, or that email has expired, there are no recovery methods to verify with. The account is locked "for good". I use quotes because in some cases I've been able to recover Gmail accounts with similar characteristics by simply trying often on my home IP address using Google Chrome.
Never delete an account in protest of not liking a company, when you could instead give it away to a spam operation, which hurts the company even more.
Or sell it, and pocket some cash for yourself. If this person has a short or otherwise valuable username, they could sell it for possibly thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.