Yikes! I'm so sorry @irvinesimages — that really rots!
I'm glad you got things restored as much as possible; I'm glad you got good help. I know there are at least a couple of initiatives working to post instantaneous warnings when those phishing comments show up... but they are getting smarter all the time... some of the recent versions I have seen don't have an actual LINK, just a picture of the link so you have to type it yourself. Which makes these things super hard to detect...
Here's hoping you recover your losses quickly!
Thanks the help was excellent. Thanks for telling me that people are working on real fundamental solutions, that's good news. We have to get rid of our vulnerabilities. That's what the crooks feed off of. I appreciate your concerns and thanks for the good wishes.