I am thankful that you have been able to get your account back! Losing all that work put into it would be heartbreaking.
This scam was discussed in the #security channel on steemit.chat. If anyone sees anything similar to this scam, simply get on steemit.chat and ask for help first. It doesn't hurt to check in the official #steemitabuse channel too. I had reported this particular scam to that channel as others had. The admins were working on it too.