Right. Techies are always quick to suggest I do something naughty or funny with this "great power" I've unwittingly gained, but in reality it's just a liability. If I ignore it and they do something nasty and implicate me, it's a pain. If I touch it with a 10 ft pole, now I'm even more actively involved.

Just include "not me!" In the verification email, dam it

“…and so I made him the owner of my account, and he used that to remove himself from it!”

“We’ll be right over.”

You give someone ownership of something and they used that ownership...

I'm curious if this would really be considered unlawful access, since only pure idiocy and no hacking/scamming/etc were involved.

No harm done no one is gonna prosecute this

In what jurisdiction? He's in Russia