Yep, I've know people where this happened. Support's answer to you was correct - they jumped through the verification hoops and got their account back.
If you cannot do that, you might want to share what is going wrong that is stopping you.
I have sent them the following explanations, but they have not replied in six days.
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I’ve had two different errors:
1. It asks for my phone number, I enter it, and get: “You have reached the maximum number of attempts. Please try again at a later date.” but I never received any verification code.
2. Or I get a verification link, open it on my phone, and before I can fill anything in, I get: “Try later.”
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If you cannot do that, you might want to share what is going wrong that is stopping you.
---
I’ve had two different errors:
1. It asks for my phone number, I enter it, and get: “You have reached the maximum number of attempts. Please try again at a later date.” but I never received any verification code.
2. Or I get a verification link, open it on my phone, and before I can fill anything in, I get: “Try later.”