AnyDesk

Founded in 2014 in Stuttgart by programmers who had left TeamViewer. The selling point was latency: the proprietary DeskRT codec compresses the screen image so aggressively that the tool feels responsive even over weak links, which was the most common complaint about the competition. Lightweight client, no install needed for a one-off session.

Like TeamViewer, AnyDesk has become a favourite of phone scammers, and many banks now warn about the app by name. The very property that makes it useful for legitimate support — unattended remote access through the firewall — makes it useful to anyone who wants to drain an account while the victim watches.