Any chance of recovering this email account?

[Anonymous]

My 70yo mother can’t remember her email password. It’s as old as the internet itself, an old Hotmail account. We’ve tried every password she can think of, none work. Unfortunately, she had her home phone as the backup phone number, so no verification code can be texted. I filled out a recovery form three times, but it wants to know things like “last subject lines” and “last addresses you sent emails to” and she has never sent emails, just received advertisement-type emails or purchase receipts. It keeps rejecting my attempts as “not enough information”. Is this a lost cause? It’s causing her major anxiety and I’d love to solve this! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Probably. But not to be annoying, if she has never sent email from it and only gets advertisements, why in the world does she want to recover access to the account? It does not sound like there are saved addresses, photos, or important emails she’s not getting access to.