CAPE CORAL Locals gather to protect Jaycee Park We will not quit: that is what people are saying who don’t want Jaycee Park in Cape Coral to change.
Lee County Domestic Animal Services hosts Check the Chip event What is more important than keeping your family together? Lee County Domestic Animal Services made keeping track of all your family members easier on Saturday with their Check the Chip event.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Voyeurism, theft, and chatroom predator This week’s segment of WINK Neighborhood Watch features: Vouyerism, a retail theft ring, and an online predator.
The Weather Authority Hurricane Beryl – first hurricane of the 2024 season The Weather Authority is tracking Beryl, the first hurricane of the season.
BUCKINGHAM Lee County deputy suffers head injury after getting hit by a car Lee County Deputy injured after being hit by a car while working a crash scene.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Classic Southwest Florida summer day Bring on the heat! It’s going to be a typical SWFL summer day with scattered storms and temperatures reaching the mid-90s.
AVE MARIA Ave Maria business faces constant flooding due to rain Years of hard work were ruined by a leaky roof that destroyed merchandise and covered the floor in water.
FORT MYERS Florida Gulf Coast Tattoo Expo kicks off in downtown Fort Myers The best tattoo artists in the industry are in town for the Florida Gulf Coast Tattoo Expo.
Minority voters react to presidential debate One of the biggest topics discussed during the debate was how both candidates would persuade minority voters.
Collier County’s innovative Independence Day drone show Collier County is stepping up its game this 4th of July with its first large-scale drone show located at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
ENGLEWOOD Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office seizes 196 illegal gambling slot machines Charlotte County deputies say Salim Qadir was running an illegal gambling ring at the tiffany square bingo hall in Englewood.
PUNTA GORDA Supreme Court rules DOJ overstepped authority on hundreds of Jan. 6 charges Supreme Court Justices decided 6-3 to throw out a lower court’s ruling that allowed a broad interpretation of an Enron-era statute to charge hundreds of defendants in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
FORT MYERS BEACH Six months in: Margaritaville’s impact on Fort Myers Beach The Chief Operating Officer for TBI Hospitality, the company that owns Margaritaville on Fort Myers Beach, said the numbers are looking good.
Death penalty law changing justice in Florida This change now means that these three killers, Joseph Zieler, Wade Wilson and Zephen Xaver face the death penalty.
New treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma shows promise A new treatment is turning the body against the deadly cells, giving more hope to people battling this disease.
CAPE CORAL Locals gather to protect Jaycee Park We will not quit: that is what people are saying who don’t want Jaycee Park in Cape Coral to change.
Lee County Domestic Animal Services hosts Check the Chip event What is more important than keeping your family together? Lee County Domestic Animal Services made keeping track of all your family members easier on Saturday with their Check the Chip event.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Voyeurism, theft, and chatroom predator This week’s segment of WINK Neighborhood Watch features: Vouyerism, a retail theft ring, and an online predator.
The Weather Authority Hurricane Beryl – first hurricane of the 2024 season The Weather Authority is tracking Beryl, the first hurricane of the season.
BUCKINGHAM Lee County deputy suffers head injury after getting hit by a car Lee County Deputy injured after being hit by a car while working a crash scene.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Classic Southwest Florida summer day Bring on the heat! It’s going to be a typical SWFL summer day with scattered storms and temperatures reaching the mid-90s.
AVE MARIA Ave Maria business faces constant flooding due to rain Years of hard work were ruined by a leaky roof that destroyed merchandise and covered the floor in water.
FORT MYERS Florida Gulf Coast Tattoo Expo kicks off in downtown Fort Myers The best tattoo artists in the industry are in town for the Florida Gulf Coast Tattoo Expo.
Minority voters react to presidential debate One of the biggest topics discussed during the debate was how both candidates would persuade minority voters.
Collier County’s innovative Independence Day drone show Collier County is stepping up its game this 4th of July with its first large-scale drone show located at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
ENGLEWOOD Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office seizes 196 illegal gambling slot machines Charlotte County deputies say Salim Qadir was running an illegal gambling ring at the tiffany square bingo hall in Englewood.
PUNTA GORDA Supreme Court rules DOJ overstepped authority on hundreds of Jan. 6 charges Supreme Court Justices decided 6-3 to throw out a lower court’s ruling that allowed a broad interpretation of an Enron-era statute to charge hundreds of defendants in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
FORT MYERS BEACH Six months in: Margaritaville’s impact on Fort Myers Beach The Chief Operating Officer for TBI Hospitality, the company that owns Margaritaville on Fort Myers Beach, said the numbers are looking good.
Death penalty law changing justice in Florida This change now means that these three killers, Joseph Zieler, Wade Wilson and Zephen Xaver face the death penalty.
New treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma shows promise A new treatment is turning the body against the deadly cells, giving more hope to people battling this disease.
Anyone can fall victim to cyber-attacks, including the government. The same Attorney General’s Office that aims to protect you from getting ripped off, with tips, lots of educational videos, even a cyber fraud unit working alongside other law enforcement agencies dedicated to solving cyber crimes, may have turned over close to $71,000 to an imposter. “Cyber crime is a growing threat and we’re fighting hard to take down those who use the internet to prey on Floridians,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said in a February 6th Consumer Alert video. It’s not quite the Nigerian Prince email scam the FBI has warned everyone about for years. But it does start with an email, and the 27-page court document says it ends with a suspect in Nigeria. This case gets messy, involving the AG’s office, a Sarasota law firm, a man in Nigeria and a Charlotte County woman. CREDIT: WINK News “The best way to fight cybercrime is to make sure Floridians have the knowledge and resources needed to avoid online schemes,” Moody said in her February 6th Consumer Alert video. According to court documents, the AG’s Office’s Senior Operations Manager got an email from the Robertson Law Firm asking the state to wire close to $71,000 for the firm’s work on a lawsuit. A week later, the money was sent. But a month after that, the law firm let the office know they never got the funds. A spokesperson later told me the Attorney General’s Office regularly spoke with an attorney from the firm on the phone and through his official, verified email account, not a spoofed account. While this case is still under investigation, court documents explain the law firm’s email was hacked and traced to a man all the way in Nigeria. “This attack can be very, very dangerous,” said Dr. Cheugyi Qu, a Computing and Software Engineering professor and Cybersecurity expert at FGCU. Dr. Qu explaining a “man-in-the-middle” attack, CREDIT: WINK News He described this as a “man-in-the-middle” attack. “Both our sides assume that we are talking with each other, but there’s like a man in the middle, mimicking the conversation,” Dr. Qu explained. “They want to get information from both sides.” Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators revealed in the court filing that the AG’s Office didn’t send the money to the suspect directly. They actually unknowingly sent the $71,000 to a bank account registered to a Charlotte County woman’s LLC, thinking it was the law firm’s account. It appears she’s a victim of a romance scam. Records show she met the man on an online dating site and he had her set up accounts to transfer money around, including cryptocurrency. “Hackers will use social engineering to attack you,” Dr. Qu added. “So they will use your emotions, they will use your, like, depression, background. They will try to use this kind of field to attack or to gather anything you have.” Related: Florida ranks top 5 for most dangerous places to online date; FGCU students react Now the Attorney General’s Office wants its money back. A spokesperson said the account has been frozen and they are in the process of forfeiture proceedings. The court documents show they’ve seized all of the suspect’s cryptocurrency and are asking the court to let them reclaim the roughly $71,000. CREDIT: WINK News Dr. Qu said the best way to make sure you don’t lose money like this is to call the person on the other end and confirm all information before sending over any funds. “We also call that zero trust,” Dr. Qu explained. “Zero trust means that you don’t trust anyone and don’t trust any action. So, although you have been cooperating with this guy for a long time, but if they have sensitive data they are asking from you, you need to double check their authentication.” WINK News Consumer Investigator Andryanna Sheppard asked the AG’s Office multiple times if they followed a similar policy or had a policy that required a superior to sign off on sending money. Even though they responded quickly to every other email she sent, they never responded to the three emails referencing this policy. But still they offer a few words of advice. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in Consumer Alert video from February 6, 2024, CREDIT: WINK News “And now with higher concerns about online safety, we must remain proactive and prepared to guard against cybercrime,” Moody said in a video on Oct. 20, 2021. Sheppard spoke with the Robertson Law Firm but he said since this case was still under investigation, he didn’t want to comment just yet. FDLE also said this was an active investigation and would not be providing any other information.