Grovetown woman scammed out of $22,000, law enforcement warning others

GROVETOWN, Ga. (WJBF) – The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office warning others after an 81-year-old Grovetown woman was scammed out of $22,000.

An investigator said a fake Microsoft window saying she’d been hacked popped up on the woman’s computer.

“And it provided her with an eight-hundred number in reference to calling Microsoft for tech support,” said Investigator William Bonsack. “Well, Microsoft doesn’t work like that.”

After calling the number on the window, scammers claiming to work for Microsoft swindled her into buying $22,000 worth of gift cards to get her money back from the supposed hacker.

The scammers ended up taking her money using the gift card pins.

“You don’t have to be an elder to be a victim of this kind of crime,” Inv. Bonsack said. “If somebody calls you and they want you to go buy gift cards, or you need to go to the cryptocurrency ATM at the local Circle K or Kroger or whatever, hang up on these people – because every bit of it is a scam.”

But, how did the malware get on her computer in the first place?

“She could’ve been to a bogus website, and said ‘oh, that looks neat’ and clicked on it,” Inv. Bonsack said. “Facebook unfortunately, everybody is associated to Facebook and Instagram, but Facebook ads are ninety-nine percent junk.”

Inv. Bonsack said the sheriff’s office works about 10 scam cases a month.

Getting the money back, is hard.

“Whatever it is gift card that you bought, is not responsible for being able to refund any money to you. If you use a debit or credit card to make those purchases, it’s a purchase that you’re knowingly making,” Inv. Bonsack said. “Whether or not there’s any duress that goes along with it, the banks don’t have to help you.”

He said scammers often use fake phone numbers with local area codes to make it even more believable.

“Some of these folks aren’t’ even in the United States, and that’s why they call it the wild wild web. Because it’s like the wild wild west, they can be anywhere and you don’t know,” he said.

The sheriff’s office is continuing to investigate this case.

Inv. Bonsack said if you’ve been scammed, contact the sheriff’s office and get your computer scanned by a reputable company.

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