A woman says she lost $22,500 after scammers posing as Microsoft convinced her to give them access to her computer, allowing them to steal banking information and drain her accounts.
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Mary Grindstaff says she was on her computer when a message popped up.
“They start telling me that there’s a problem on my computer and they’re Microsoft and they’re going to fix it,” she told Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke.
Obviously, they were not Microsoft. They were imposters.
“They were having me fill out certain blanks and so forth,” she said.
She says once they were in her computer, they were fishing around her bank accounts, helping themselves to her information and, then, money: $22,500. She showed Stoogenke her bank statements as proof.
“I stayed very depressed for a while, but I’ve decided, if I can’t get it, I’m not going to let it destroy me,” she said.
She reached out to her credit union and said they reimbursed her about $12,000, but that she was still out more than $10,000.
“I have been saving all year for my big bills that are due at the end of the year,” she said. “So, I got to save up all that again.”
She hopes others learn from her experience and don’t believe it if someone claiming to help with IT calls them out of the blue.
Her credit union wouldn’t discuss much about her case for privacy reasons.
However, they shared advice that’s good no matter who you bank with:
- Remember: Criminals often imitate trusted organizations.
- Be especially cautious of calls, computer pop-ups, emails, or texts you didn’t ask for.
- Never share banking credentials, passwords, or multi-factor authentication codes with a stranger.
Stoogenke added this: Freeze your credit so that, even if criminals steal your information, they can’t do as much with it.
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