Went on line to check my portfolio only to see I was blocked out because to too many attempts to log in and had a number to call. After calling I was instructed to go to anydesk.com to let them into my laptop and this made me nervous. He said they will investigate, and they will call me the next day. I changed computers over the weekend so he had to start all over and I knew something was wrong This was Friday so I had to wait until this Monday and I was nervous all weekend. When he called this morning I challenged him on who he was and he replied with an employee number and said he will call the brokerage firm for me and they will call me. It turned out he was the one that called me not the company. I insisted I call the company and he said he would call me later once I knew everything was on the up and up. I called the company office and they told me everything was 100% a lie. They asked me if I made to SELL calls last Friday and I said no I did not. The total of those two sales was greater than $18,000. So, they agreed to lock my account from everyone including me and will investigate and get back with me when completed. Never go to anydesk.com ever. I am so relieved I challenged this and feel stupid I went along as far as I did.
Yeah, that sounds like a scam, and you were smart to challenge it. Anydesk.com gives them control over your computer and is often used by scammers. I've watched several Scammer Payback podcasts until they finally became more of the same, but it does give you a good idea of some of the common scams that target older people online.
This topic has come up more than once recently. You did the right thing...always call the company directly. If it's legit, the person on the other end of the phone will have no problem with you doing that. Only a scammer will try to dissuade you. What sucks is that with the www, these people are beyond the reach of any American agencies.
What is puzzling is how did they get my username and password as I never store any passwords related to finance in my laptop? How did they bypass the security verification passcode that always is mandatory prior to allowing me to get on the site? Last, is where did the money go to from the sale of two of my stocks as my bank is the default location for all proceeds?
I don't understand you were directed to a fake website in the first place. I guess it's possible that your credentials were stored on cookies, but most places tell you that once the tab is closed, that stuff gets deleted. Anyway, you should be able to log in to your account and see where any proceeds were sent. You need to have a detailed conversation with the institution to find out exactly what happened so as to protect yourself in the future. All my financial accounts (bank, investments, 401k) have 2-Step Verification. First, I enter Username & Password, then they send a code to me via text that I enter as the second verification. This is a requirement from the institutions...I did not request it. I'm surprised yours does not. If there's the option to do this set it up.
I have the institution working it and I agree it is impossible to understand how anyone could login -sell two of the many stocks-and where did the money go to? I always get very texts after I log in but I did not log in as the warning said logging in is impossible because of "two many attempts."