Latest news with #Target8
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘It haunts you': Hackers, hijackers lock up Facebook pages
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — If scammers take over your social media account, you're encouraged to with the Michigan attorney general's office. The A.G.'s Office of Corporate Oversight has had some success helping victims of the increasingly pervasive scam regain control of their pages. 'Happy news!' texted one victim who'd contacted Target 8 investigators for help. 'I got my accounts back today. Attorney General's office made it happen.' Account takeovers are hardly a new phenomenon, but the problem has grown significantly. Attorney General Dana Nessel's office told Target 8 it received 50 such complaints in 2022, 185 in 2023, 485 in 2024, and 127 in the first few months of 2025. In March 2024, attorneys general nationwide penned a letter to Meta requesting the company take 'immediate action to address the… dramatic and persistent spike in complaints … concerning account takeovers…. We refuse to operate as the customer service representatives of your company,' the AGs declared. Kelly Roper, a Grand Rapids business owner whose Facebook page was hijacked, is hoping Dana Nessel's office will come through for her. She filed a complaint with the attorney general's office at Target 8's suggestion. 'I didn't know that I could do that,' said Roper in a recent interview with Target 8. 'I reported the fraud to Facebook. Every time you do something, it's a dead-end. You cannot get to anybody. You cannot talk to anybody. It is so frustrating.' It's been ten months since a criminal took over Roper's personal Facebook page, and she's still unable to access it. Her personal FB account is tied to her business page, which makes it difficult to market her business. Roper owns Show Salon in downtown Grand Rapids. Fake posts selling cars and crypto 'Around August of 2024, I had a friend reach out to me and say, 'I didn't know that you were selling a car on Facebook,' recalled Roper. 'I said, 'I'm not selling a car. I don't know what this is.'' It was the scam that's targeting individuals, businesses, and celebrities everywhere. In Roper's case, it started with the fake car-selling post. 'I actually reached out to Facebook and told them, 'I've been hacked. This is not me,'' explained Roper, noting that friends and family reported it too. No response from Meta, the company that owns Facebook, said Roper. Then, her Facebook page was disabled, so she started up a new one. That was in January of 2025. 'Around February or March, I get this call from a friend that said, 'I don't know if you know this, but somebody's posting that you are selling crypto,'' Roper told Target 8 in an interview at her salon on Monroe Center NW. The new post included a picture of a certificate with CyrptoCurrency Certification Consortium across the top. Roper's name was on it. 'Congratulations to me,' read the fraudulent post. 'So, this just came in today after months and months of endless study and training. I'm happy to announce that I've been certified as an Expert Crypto Trader after undergoing the rigorous training which lasted for over 24 months.' Fortunately, Roper's Facebook friends were not fooled. 'Everyone who knows me knows that I'm not going to sell crypto,' said Roper. 'I would never get involved in something like that. But it started posting all over Facebook, and, I mean, everywhere. It looked so official with my name on it. So, I was pretty obviously upset. I own a business. I didn't want people thinking that I did this, because I didn't. It was not me.' Another post featured a picture of a smiling middle-aged couple holding Roper's fake crypto certificate and praising her services. 'Kelly (Roper) is God sent (sic). Our debit are (sic) paid fully. $180k,' read the fraudulent post. Roper said she followed the steps in the 'Recover your hacked account' section of Facebook's online help center to no avail. When she tried to set up another Facebook page, she said Meta rejected it. 'It said, 'We reviewed your account and found it still does not follow our community standards on account integrity,'' recalled Roper. 'Not sure what that means because this is a brand-new account. I have not posted anything on it other than a picture of me.' At one point, Roper scanned her face. No luck there either. '(The) Facebook page said, 'scan your picture.' explained Roper. 'So, I scan it, and I still get rejected. (They say) that I'm not me.' The salon has found a work-around though; employees post on Instagram, and it shows up on the salon's Facebook page. 'It haunts you' Still, Roper feels personally violated. 'It haunts you,' said the salon owner. 'There are pictures of my kids, my dogs, my family. You know, this is a big deal.' BlackCloak Digital Executive Protection, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm, told Target 8 that Roper's experience is far from unique. 'It is very difficult,' said Ingrid Gliottone, Chief Experience Officer at BlackCloak, in a Zoom with Target 8. 'We're seeing it across the board trying to get a hold of an individual at any of these platforms to be able to retain access. I would say it's probably about a 50/50 shot that if you have your account compromised… you will be able to regain the account, unfortunately. It's just a flip of the coin what the system will accept or not.' Gliottone blamed Meta's lack of responsiveness on workforce reductions. 'Prior to COVID, these larger platforms like Meta, for example, had a lot more individual staff to be able to review those requests for when you thought your account was being impersonated, or your account was compromised and locked out,' explained Gliottone. 'What ultimately ended up happening, we saw a lot of those individuals be removed from those positions due to economic conditions.' Fewer humans, more automation In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg, founder, chairman and CEO of Meta, announced the company was cutting 11,000 jobs. 'That's why individuals… are having more difficulty trying to retain access to accounts,' explained Gliottone, 'because they're going up against automated systems and workflows, right? They'll go in and they'll submit, and they don't have… the documentation needed, so the system will automatically spit it back out and deny it.' Gliottone said some BlackCloak clients never regained access to their accounts. But she urges you to keep trying; report the fraud to Meta repeatedly and have friends and family do the same. '(It took one client) almost nine months before they were able to regain (control). They just kept trying.' Gliottone said weak passwords are most often to blame when bad actors gain access to accounts. Passwords and dual-factor authentication She urges you to create complex, unique, passwords, get comfortable using password managers, don't use variations of the same password and always enable dual-factor authentication. Prevention is the best protection. 'Some of the ways we have our clients achieve this in a relatively easy fashion is to think of short phrases or sentences because those are easier to remember,' explained Gliottone, referring to password generation. 'For instance, 'I love to fly.' You start off with capital 'I' and then, 'love' and then instead of 'to', you can use the number '2', and then 'fly' and you end with a period or an exclamation point. Strong passwords, that's the number one most important thing. Then dual-factor authentication is the next piece.' Facebook's online help center has pages on how to or someone pretending to be you or someone else on messenger. Target 8 sent emails to Meta and Facebook requesting comment. We received no response. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Schurr juror: One holdout kept former officer from being acquitted
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A member of the jury that couldn't reach a verdict in the Christopher Schurr murder trial said race never came up in the deliberations, that Schurr helped himself by taking the stand and that there was one main holdout that kept the former officer from being acquitted. That holdout, he told Target 8 in an exchange of emails, was the jury foreperson — the only Black jury member on the 12-person jury. Schurr's defense team confirmed that. The jury could not reach a verdict after four days and 21 hours of deliberations, leading to a . Prosecutor Chris Becker on Thursday announced he would not retry the case that has divided the community. Prosecutor will not retry Christopher Schurr in Patrick Lyoya's death Becker has said the jury voted 10-2 in favor of acquittal. The defense attorney said it was 11-1 for acquittal. In an exchange of emails with Target 8, a member of the jury wrote that the foreperson 'claimed there was no way that they could see Schurr actually fearing for his life' as he and Patrick Lyoya struggled over the officer's Taser. Schurr, who is white, encountered Lyoya, who is Black, during a traffic stop in April 2022. The juror, one of three men on the jury, said it wouldn't have made sense to retry Schurr, as 'they are going to have a real tough time finding 12 people who would unanimously vote guilty in Kent County based on majority demographics alone.' The 12-member jury was made up of nine women and three men. Ten were white, one Hispanic and one, the foreperson, was Black. The juror who spoke to Target 8 didn't want to be identified. 'Ultimately,' he wrote, 'I would like to avoid having my name or any personal information attached to this as I'm not looking for that kind of exposure.' GR leaders promise 'commitment to police reforms' despite no Schurr retrial The jury deliberated for parts of four days before announcing it couldn't reach a verdict on May 8 on either the murder charge or manslaughter. The juror said the final vote was either 11-1 or 10-2 for acquittal on the second-degree murder charge. 'We didn't even really discuss manslaughter much because of the fact (that) we couldn't agree on the primary charge,' the juror wrote. Either way, it led the judge to declare a mistrial. Target 8 tried talking to other members of the jury: some could not be reached, some declined comment and others did not respond to our requests for interviews. Sharpton wants feds to investigate Lyoya death The death of Patrick Lyoya led to marches and protests and visits by civil rights leaders, including Al Sharpton. But the juror said race was not part of the deliberations. 'For what it's worth,' he wrote, 'even with a diverse jury, the white/Black narrative was never something that was even considered in our conversations. It was more about the training/policies than potential political tension.' What comes next? Legal expert weighs in on Schurr mistrial Three members of the Grand Rapids Police Department, including two captains, testified that Schurr followed his training and department policies. The juror also wrote that the helped sway some. 'I do believe, based on being around all of the other jurors and with discussion with them throughout the trial, that Chris taking the stand provided clarity for some of those that remained on the fence about their vote,' he wrote. Schurr testified that he feared for his life as he and Lyoya fought over his Taser. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Yahoo
Schurr prosecution expert said in 2022 that video was not ‘proof positive' of crime
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The murder trial of former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr will begin Monday in Kent County Circuit Court and is expected to include the testimony of an expert prosecution witness on the use of force. It won't be the first time the expert has given his opinion on the April 2022 shooting death of Patrick Lyoya. Seth Stoughton, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, provided it to Target 8 while watching video of the shooting released by police days after the shooting. His take back then: The video showing Schurr shooting Lyoya in the back of the head after a traffic stop and a struggle was not proof either way that Schurr committed a crime. 'It raises some very significant red flags,' Stoughton said at the time. 'It's not in and of itself proof positive that the officer committed a crime. It's also not in and of itself proof positive that the officer did not commit a crime. I would want more information than just this video. 'I see a lot of uses of force, a lot of uses of fatal force,' he told Target 8 at the time. 'None of them are easy to watch. This one certainly is not.' Nearly all-white jury chosen in Schurr's trial Stoughton is among 11 witnesses listed by Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker for the trial. He's one of two prosecution witnesses. The prosecution must prove the shooting was not justified. Schurr's defense attorney, Matthew Borgula, has asked the judge to block the prosecutor's witness from testifying. The defense has also listed more than 40 potential witnesses, including its own experts. Schurr's attorney says he was in fear for his life and acted in self-defense. Stoughton co-authored a book, 'Evaluating Police Uses of Force.' He testified for the prosecution in the murder trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the 2020 death of George Floyd. The death led to national unrest. After watching the GRPD videos for Target 8, he said the shooting of Lyoya should never have happened. He questioned the officer's decision-making. Stoughton told Target 8 that Schurr's first mistake was chasing Lyoya after the traffic stop. Lyoya was driving a car with a wrong license plate. The officer was on patrol alone and had no backup. Police, Stoughton said, could have identified Lyoya and gotten a warrant later. 'It is preferable to go slower and safer than it is to go more quickly and less safe,' he said. He watched the video as Schurr and Lyoya wrestled. 'That officer has no idea how to control that guy,' he said. He questioned his training and why the officer pulled his Taser when he did. 'Deploying the Taser at close range is not a good idea, because the guy can grab it. That's exactly why you don't do that,' he said. He listened as Schurr yelled repeatedly for Lyoya to let go of his Taser. In an email exchange with Target 8, Stoughton said he was later retained by the prosecutor's office and reviewed other evidence before reaching a conclusion. He declined to elaborate with the trial pending. 'Video itself — that is, as the only piece of evidence — is almost never enough to make a definitive assessment as to criminal or civil liability; making such determinations requires reviewing the entire body of evidence in a case,' he wrote in an email. Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminology professor who co-authored the use of force book with Stougton, viewed the video for Target 8 after Schurr's arrest in June 2022. He's not listed as a witness in the case. 'It's very difficult to determine when a civil wrong rises to the level of a crime, and that's something that a jury has to decide, and it's not an easy decision,' he said at the time. National expert: Murder charge against GRPD officer not surprising The key, Alpert said, was the Taser at the time of the shooting and whether it posed a threat to Schurr. It had already been fired twice, striking the ground. 'That certainly could be something that convinces jurors that he was in imminent fear of his life, or he wasn't,' Alpert said. The trial before Kent County Circuit Court Judge Christina Mims is expected to last up to two weeks. If past court hearings in this case are any indication, it could be contentious, even outside the courtroom. During previous hearings, the hallway leading to the courtroom was packed with supporters of Schurr and Lyoya. It got unruly. The Back the Blue Michigan Facebook page is urging Schurr supporters to gather outside the courthouse at 6 a.m. Monday with signs, Blue Line flags, and Stand With Schurr bracelets. Schurr's supporters, including the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association, have held fundraisers for him and his family, including a golf tournament. An organizer with Back the Blue Michigan declined to comment. The police association did not respond to requests for interviews. Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack, who has become close to the Lyoya family and sat through jury selection, said he also expects a turnout of Lyoya supporters. Security will be tight. Extra deputies were called in for jury selection; so was a bomb-sniffing dog. The court is limiting the number of people in the hallway. The death led to marches and protests; and visits from civil rights leaders including Rev. Al Sharpton, who demanded justice and police reform. What led up to murder trial for ex-GRPD officer The 14-member jury, which includes two alternates, is made up of four men and 10 women. Ten are white, three are Hispanic and one woman identified herself as biracial. 'It's not a race-based crime,' defense attorney Borgula said last week after the jury was selected. 'Obviously, race is always an issue as part of the fabric of our society, but it's not going to be an issue in the case, other than what the personal experiences of the jurors are.' Many of the jurors questioned were familiar with the case; some had watched body camera video leading up to the shooting. The video released by police shows Lyoya running away from Schurr after the April 4, 2022, traffic stop, then the two struggling over Schurr's Taser. Ultimately, Schurr, who was on top of Lyoya trying to hold him down, shot him in the back of the head. Schurr was later charged with second-degree murder and fired from GRPD. Womack, the Kent County commissioner, has marched with the Lyoya family and was with them at their son's funeral. 'Justice for them, of course, would be seeing the officer go to jail,' he said. He said he has faith in the jury. 'So racially, we have one African American, so we can't argue about that, but we talk about the demographics and location,' he said. 'You have incidents happening in the heart of Grand Rapids' urban area and the majority of the people who you might put on a jury may come from as far away as Cedar Springs, they may come from anywhere in Kent County, so it's definitely going to be a challenge, but we're going to trust the jury system.' Schurr's attorney accuses Lyoya family's legal team of trying to sway jury He urged peace. 'I just tell the community, no matter what the outcome, we're going to have to accept it and we can't take it out on businesses,' Womack said. 'We can't take it out on each other. We don't need violence; we don't need riots. That's something that even the Lyoya family has been trying to get out to the media. 'We want peace after this verdict.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fentanyl dealers would get mandatory prison under bills
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A set of bills advanced this week in the state House would set harsher penalties for drug dealers who peddle fentanyl, carfentanil, heroin and their derivatives. 'These bills impose a mandatory minimum (prison term) for drug traffickers,' explained one of the bills' sponsors, Rep. Sarah Lightner, R-Springport, in an interview Friday with Target 8 via Zoom. 'We needed to figure out a way to disrupt the supply chain. They are peddling death in our communities.' Inside The fentanyl crisis Lightner acknowledges she's encountered some pushback. Mandatory minimums have faced criticism historically. 'I get that mandatory minimums are something of the past,' said Lightner. '(But) the pendulum has swung, I think, so far to the other side now. I think it's time for us to say, 'We're not going to take it.' It's not just going to be a slap on the wrist.' 8,500 fentanyl pills in Grand Rapids storage shed brings prison In 2023, the most recent year available, fentanyl overdoses killed 2,168 people in Michigan, according to the state health department. Under House Bills and , the mandatory minimum sentences would range from five to 30 years depending on the amount sold. On the low end, less than 50 grams would carry a minimum five years in prison up to 20 years. More than 1,000 grams would garner at least 30 years in prison up to life without parole, as well as a mandatory $2 million fine. Summary: House Bills 4255 and 4256 At a March 19 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, two mid-Michigan parents who've lost children to fentanyl testified in support of the bills, as did Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert. 'I used to be not a big fan of mandatory minimums just because we were usually getting the low-hanging fruit,' Gilbert testified. 'But things changed right around 2012 when fentanyl and carfentinil hit … (they) are basically the primary movers and killers today in the drug culture.' But Stephanie Kammeraad of Grand Rapids, whose son, Carlos, in January 2023, told Target 8 she does not support mandatory minimums in every case. 'Too late': Grand Rapids teen died even as fentanyl fatalities dropped 'I do think every situation is unique. I worry about those who don't know that what they're dealing or selling has fentanyl in it,' said Kammeraad. 'Then, my heart breaks for them because I picture our son, Carlos, potentially being one of those people. … I don't know that locking people away is fixing the problem.' Kammeraad said Carlos' struggle with addiction could have prompted him to sell drugs in desperation. 'An addict's brain isn't thinking clearly,' Kammeraad said. 'It's only thinking about, 'How do I get the next hit?' That's all they can think about. Their brain chemistry has changed.' Kammeraad wants to focus resources on treatment, not incarceration. Still, she acknowledges mandatory minimum prison terms could make a positive difference. 'It gets people off the streets, yes, which is good,' Kammeraad said. 'I guess it could save someone's life.' If a dealer knowingly sells fentanyl or sells solely to enrich themselves, Kammeraad agrees that a mandatory prison sentence is appropriate. Lightner noted that the bills passed the House, which has a Republican majority, with bipartisan support. She hopes the Democrat-controlled Senate will consider the bills promptly. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
Public guardian accused of stealing $100,000 enters plea
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A West Michigan guardian who stole from people she was supposed to protect faces up to ten years in prison. Kimberley St. Onge pleaded no contest in a Kent County courtroom Thursday afternoon to three counts of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult between $20,000 and $50,000. St. Onge's attorney told a judge that her client pleaded no contest due to potential civil liability; a no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but it's treated as such for sentencing purposes. Each of the three counts carries up to ten years in prison, and 17th Circuit Court Judge George J. Quist could order those sentences to run consecutively instead of concurrently, which is more common. Chihuahua killed in Grand Rapids park after structure fell on him 'Unfortunately, this woman took a lot of money from a lot of vulnerable people,' Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told Target 8. 'Caused a lot of harm.' Becker said St. Onge stole more than $100,000 from 13 vulnerable adults for whom she served as guardian. St. Onge had no criminal record when she applied to become a public guardian through Kent County Probate Court. The guardianship program confirmed that St. Onge served in that role from May 2023 to May 2024. The program also confirmed that it runs criminal record, central registry and credit checks on all who apply to become guardians. According to a police report obtained by Target 8, St. Onge convinced the Social Security Office to put her name on one of her ward's benefit checks and mail it to her private P.O. Box. Grand Rapids Police reported that St. Onge also wrote checks to her own family on her wards' bank accounts, made unauthorized transfers and ATM withdrawals, and spent the money on gas, a hotel, Taco Bell and T-Mobile, among other purchases. Grieving families say estate sale manager owes thousands 'The real tragic part is they're not getting their money back,' said Becker. 'I mean, yeah, there will be a restitution order, and they'll be told they have to pay this, but when you're talking about this kind of money, it's not like they're putting it in a savings account. It's gone. We don't know where exactly the money went. It's not like (St. Onge) had a whole lot of assets.' Becker encourages people to watch out for each other, especially the most vulnerable among us. 'I always ask the people around the vulnerable people, be the eyes and ears,' explained Becker. 'If a vulnerable person has a guardian, they usually have some sort of mental incapacity, some short-term memory loss. They don't know what's happening. But if they're being isolated, that's the biggest thing, if they're isolated without any other contact with anybody else, that's when they're really susceptible to being a target and being victimized like this.' St. Onge is scheduled for sentencing in Kent County Circuit Court May 12. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
