Claimed DOTs went to an unknown address

On 25 July 2020 I went through the steps on https://claims.polkadot.network to claim my 5.826 DOTs.

I checked the Eth address I used for the 2017 Polkadot ICO and the site confirmed I had a claim. Address here: 0x008fd24707883aFFBD4C830EeE85a8a4149306ce (when taking part in the auction in 2017 i’m sure I would have used government issued ID so I can attest I made the purchase and you can see from the address in Ethplorer etc that there was DOT allocation indicator for 5.826 DOTs there).

I selected the ‘Polkadot.js browser plugin’ option (i was using Chrome version 84 on Windows 10 using a Huawei Matebook). Created an account, wrote down seed and password. This is the Polkadot account address I created: 123XqJxy1kJFVHkYjqmEyeaWCcXuzmPhZ9iqFsuUEuLLgWqV

Then went through the steps for ‘claim & attest’:
Downloaded ‘MyCrypto’ had it running locally, then navigated the claims app on polkadot.js apps, selected the account I created and clicked continue, entered the Eth address, the statement populated so copied it, then went back to MyCrypto used the ‘Keystore file’ option, pasted the statement and clicked ‘sign message’, it generated my statement as a json output, copied the complete content of the signature box and went back to the claims app, there I pasted the json output and clicked ‘confirm claim’, I saw the green message, clicked ‘claim’, authorised the transaction by clicking on ‘submit no signature’, then went to ‘my account’ but the balance was 0.000.

I clicked on the tab next to ‘my account’ - ‘my contacts’ - and there was the following address in my contacts 14wGxbJwz6QFZSit56pAdMNu4DPqZZbGSTD2nLpFcuhBZs1p - here the address displayed the exact balance for the amount I was claiming: 5.826 DOTs. I didn’t create this address nor did it appear in ‘My Accounts’ - only the account I created mentioned above.

I understandably felt panicked that I somehow lost the DOTs, so I raised with the community via the Claims Support channel (riot.im/app > Polkadot Claims Support).

I was asked by an admin called Bill to email what had happened and he would take a deeper look. I was advised yesterday by Bill that he wasn’t sure what had happened as he doesn’t have superuser access and the next step would be to petition the Polkadot Council.

Bill has since mentioned I'm not the only person experiencing this issue.

I followed the clear instructions on https://claims.polkadot.network/ as detailed above but this error occurred - am I able to retrieve the DOTs or be compensated for the same amount? I’ve been a part of this project since the beginning but can’t afford to buy in at this stage. I think there is justification here for why I think the council should consider enacting a change to the protocol on my behalf - I’d be very grateful if someone can advise on the best next steps.