All my posts are gone?

I recently got hit with being required to validate my account via text message or credit card. Got that done (though an issue still exists, but that's not what this post is about). Now I've noticed that all of my previous posts are gone. I remember one topic I had replied in and went back to that topic and my post(s) are gone from it. It's as though I never posted at all.

I'm wondering why I was randomly hit with this process of validating my account which I've had for over a decade. I'm also wondering why my posts are deleted, while others aren't.

So I'm wondering, what gives?