Locked out of Instagram after unlinking my phone number and being asked to verify via numbers I never added
A few days ago I went to unlink my phone number from my Instagram account, intending to keep only my email for login. Right after doing this, Instagram locked my account and showed me a "Choose a way to recover" screen with two phone numbers I don't recognize as currently mine.
I have tried:
Email recovery (received and entered the code, same screen appeared)
instagram.com/hacked
Forgot password flow
Waiting several days
Different devices and browsers
My account has a linked email, Google Authenticator, and a selfie verification but the system ignores all of these and only offers those two numbers.
The strange part: those numbers were briefly linked to the account a few years ago, then removed. They haven't been associated with the account for a long time. But the moment I unlinked my current number, they reappeared out of nowhere as the only recovery option.
I believe this is a bug in Instagram's phone number unlinking process that somehow resurfaced old, long-removed contact info and locked me into it.
Has anyone experienced this or found a way past it? Any help appreciated.