Morgan Co. judge’s Facebook account hacked, scammer targets friends with fake sale

DECATUR, Ala. (WAFF) – A Morgan County judge is warning the public about online scams after a hacker took over her Facebook account and used it to steal money from her friends. Jennifer Howell, a longtime Morgan County circuit court judge, woke up one morning in early February to find herself locked out of her Facebook account. A new email address and phone number had been registered to the account — signs she had been hacked. The hacker posed as Howell and posted about a family member with a terminal cancer diagnosis, using real images of a man in a hospital bed. “I started seeing that he was posting these things, that I had this dying uncle. And it was just this heart-wrenching thing with real pictures of some guy on his death bed in his hospital room,” Howell said. “And it’s not my uncle. My uncle is fine.” In the scammer’s next post, they claimed because Howell’s uncle was dying, the family was selling all his personal belongings. This included seven vehicles, three trailers, a tractor, a golf cart, and even a PlayStation. Howell said the hacker exchanged private messages with 137 different people in less than 48 hours
Read More