[willis936]

Something similar happened to me during the great yahoo hack. My email stayed compromised even across password changes, so I deleted my account. So the person taking it over undid that then updated the recovery information. I was never able to regain control of that account that I'm certain spams my contact list to this day.

After that I stopped deleting accounts. I maintain a firm grip on every one, even ones I never plan to use again (including facebook and reddit).