lisa fletcher, abc 7 news. steve: awesome lightning display earlier this evening.tormwatch 7 captured these pictures from falls church. the rain came down heavy at times, severe thunderstorm warnings. no warnings to talk about this evening. ashburn, virginia, lightning strikes there, and huge clouds in middleburg and woodbridge. thank you for sending these. not a lole no warnings or watches, a few scattered showers at dulles international airport, but not a lot more this evening. another round of what weather on the way tomorrow, and a cold front moves across the mid atlantic. tomorrow morning, i don't think you will need the jacket, but grab your sunglasses and umbrella heading out the door. day around 70 degrees, warming up into the upper 80's, near 90 degrees, before the cold front moves in from the north and west. futurecast, stormwatch 7, quiet and dry early tomorrow morning. looking good at lunchtime. 4:00, four clock, showers and thunderstorms begin to develop, sticking around tomorrow evening, likely lasting tomorrow night into early, early saturday morning

of a 20-year-old law that protects internet free speech and, by consequence, websites used fose lisa fletcherry. andrea benson: there were girls that were really, really young, but honestly, that's what the johns want and so it's not something that we even thought about at all. lisa: when andrea benson worked as a prostitute in portland, oregon, she knew that the clients wanted their girls young. andrea: even when i was in the life, i put that my age was 19 and guys would just be like, "well, you don't look like you're 19. you look like you're younger. you look like my granddaughter. you look like my daughter." lisa: benson claims she was trafficked on backpage, an online classified advertising site. carol robles-roman: this is a business model that makes $9 million a month using this exploitive model. lisa: carol robles-roman heads lega backpage on behalf of a "jane doe" client who claims to have been trafficked on backpage, and two other advocacy groups who support victims of sex trafficking, including children. carol: these are kids. these are young kids, these are minors and there's no ju

lisa fletcher, abc 7 news. steve: it was hot, 93 degrees at reagan national airport. not a record. 96 back in 1997 is the record. if you like the heat and humidity, we have a break on the way. a big change for the forecast this weekend. stronger storms near baltimore, beginning to ease. the warning we had five minutes ago has canceled. showers greenbelt and berwyn heights continuing to move off to the north and east. not amounting to a how lot more -- to a whole lot more overnight. widely scattered showers stay in the forecast and tomorrow another round of showers over the dmv. the temperatures are slowly cooling, a cold front on its way. 69 martinsburg, 76 reagan national, 58 fredericksburg. up temperatures tomorrow, not quite as soupy and warm. the morning temperatures, upper 60's if you are going out early, take your umbrella. clouds hang around for pretty much the entire day. a little thinning late in the afternoon, early evening, but don't expect much sun tomorrow, the temperatures well below average this time of year. futurecast, 7:00 a.m., widely scattered show

as lisa fletcher discovered, there is a dark in deceptive side to online dating. you think that you know who you are conversing with on a dating website. you have read their biography, shared photos, maybe even checked out their facebook page. but what you see may be dangerously different from what you get. >> it happened very quickly. he had groomed me within two months and pimped me out. graduate is a college raised in a christian home with a close family. >> have a family, so i went to the online dating website and met this guy and it was a fast and furious romance. did not knowdrea is the guy who promised her everything was a pimp. >> they don't do these things by mistake. target women who they perceive as the most vulnerable. >> you are targeting people and get them out of the norm and you start to have them do things they normally don't do. >> it started out with alienating me from my family. he knew i was christian, so he knew all he had to do was get me to do a few things my parents were not like and separate us. and andrealan worked moved in. when she disc

alison: the senior investigative reporter lisa fletcher is looking into this. ncy: we understand this attack has been happening under the public radar in the united states. lisa: you are right. happening with very little public attention. for the last few years they have been yielding ransom wear to extort hospitals, police departments and schools. individual targets like you and the credit card. they found easier way to make money. accord dog the top cyber security experts they are targeting subset of society, most likely to pay the demand. >> is it fair to call them infrastructure hitmen? >> yes. >> why bitcoin? >> it's more anonymous. harder to trace. lisa: since 2013, hackers hit police departments in seven states holding the records and the files hostage until departments pay up. last year hospital presbyterian hospital and the l.a. county health department had their records held hostage. the ransom are often on the smaller side. by design. that increases likelihood the criminals get the money. study reports last year the community of christ church in hills

senior investigateive reporter lisa fletcher is here to shed light on what some doctors around patientsfusing diagnosis. lisa lisa: it's called "stage zero cancer." while the diagnosis has been around for soil time, the rate it is attacking is increasing. and some are scared thinking they are sicker than they are. it's seen to breast cancer but it is also attached to mem knowma and bladder cancer. she was told that the treatment was unnecessary. >> i have been overtreated, overdiagnosed, overscared. >> there are plenty of doctors who say aggressive tritement of the smallest detection of the precancer or cancer the best option. larry: sun screen is the best way to protect your skin. "consumer report" says the sun screen milk with spf 60 at the top of the list. trader joe's spray is second. and equate sport lotion is third. >> we suggest a essential call sun screen that has at least an spf of 40. >> consumer reports also says a third of the samples they tested did not match the spf listed on the bottle. >> wow! amazing. >> scary. doug: with the heat and the humidity and the sun comes up t

abc7 senior investigator lisa fletcher with the breaking consumer alert. lisa in lisa: that is right. feds are suing over illegal software designed to pass the e.p.a. lab tests for diesel vehicles. we are learning more about that. here is what we know. 104,000 vehicles are involved. the max penalty is $4.6 million. if you own a diesel dodge ram pickup or a jeep grand cherokee you could be h so in terms of performance they are performing one way under the e.p.a. test and another way out on the street. this is similar to the volkswagen emission scandal. we stayed on top of that and we'll stay on top of this one as well through the conclusion of the d.o.j. investigation. jonathan: violating the do not call registry is getting expensive for the dish network. the federal judge tripled the award for 50,000 people in north carolina. google monitors your online shopping but now it keeps part of what you buy in stores. this hes them inform the her chan w to sales at a brick and mortar store. nancy: "7 on your side" catching not one but two pairs of criminals breakin

lisa fletcher has the consumer report. lisa: a software glitch could prevent air bags. the 2013-2016 ram pickups. it includes 2014-2016 ram 3500 pickup trucks. a computer module may incorrectly identify that one of the sensors failed and that would disable the side air bag and seat belt pretensioner so it won't hold tight. you can turn the truck off and back on for a reboot. reprogramming plans are in the works. jonathan. jonathan: some must-see video from norway tonight. an eyewitness capturing the moment when a helicopter -- look for it right there in the center of your screen -- crashed right in the drink. that was in the harbor. you can see the helicopterer was trying to initially land on the yacht right there. didn't go so well. missed it by that much. authorities say the pilot was trying to do that, didn't work out but three people were hurt. nobody seriously from the last time we checked. alison: very dramatic there. a milestone spacewalk. astronauts stepping outside morning. marking the 200th i.s.s. spacewalk. it's also a special for these two astronauts. for fi

the senior investigative reporter lisa fletcher is here with a new and a potentially dangerous twist line dating. lisa: this story detectives are hearing more frequently. women on dating sites think they are getting a boyfriend but they are really getting a pimp. it is not easy to tell who is hiding behind a seamingly harmless profile. >> i googled him. looked up his facebook. but he was ahead of the game. he knew who he was as a person. when he picked me out, he went and blocked me from the things he didn't want me to see. they have something to hide, they will hide it. >> a pimp pretended to be a he loved this woman. but instead, trapped her away from friends and family and into working for him as a prostitute. the scenario is not nearly as unusual as it may sound. don't miss our story. it's coming up tonight at 11:00. larry: thank you. "7 on your side" in health matters as the string allergy season hits full stride. different people are allergic to different things. some of them won't have puffy eyes, scratchy throats or coughs or sneezes until fall. >> the patients who have mold s

nancy: "7 on your side" senior investigative reporter lisa fletcher joining us now. this is alarming information. >> it is. we talk about overpaying and that is the understatement of the day. we are talking about 3460% more than what medicare pays for services ranging from stitches to a c.t. scan. uninsured are and minorities are getting the worst of it. they looked at the medical doctors at 30 o hospitals across the u.s. and compared how much they billed to how much medicare would allow and the difference comes out of the patient's pocket often. they found the e.r. marked up prices 13 times what medicare would pay for a total of billion versus $898 million allowed by medicare. examples that the study found the wound closures getting stitches marked up 11 times. interpreting c.t. scan marked up 27 times. charge to read e.k.g. could be 20 times the original amount. the researchers say this is a healthcare system problem that requires state and the federal legislation to protect patients. maryland has maryland waiver that means the prices are the same rated no matter w

parked in the garage catches fire while it's parked. 7 on your side senior investigative reporter lisa fletcher is in the newsroom. this isn't an isolated incident. lisa: we're learning these b.m.w. fires are not only happening in our back yard but across the globe. here's what happened to one maryland family who just as you said parked their car in the garage for the night. the family home in maryland going up in flames after their 2008 b.m.w. s.u.v. catches on fire. bill tells the 7 on your side eye team the vehicle was parked in the garage and it wasn't running. >> there was already smoke coming out of the engine compartment and a flame shot out that no time other than to call 911. lisa: the eye team learned this isn't an isolated incident. reports from dozens of b.m.w. owners across the united states and around the world tell the same story -- their vehicles are catching on fire. >> the very crazy thing is it keeps happening to b.m.w. lisa: b.m.w. says fire incidents involving b.m.w.'s are extremely rare. there are roughly 4.9 million b.m.w. vehicles on u.s. roads. here's what b.m.w. has fo

senior investigative reporter lisa fletcher is here with how law allowed it to continue doing business >> on the same site to buy a lawnmower or a couch you can buy minors for sex. there is a law on the book decency act. it protects facebook and twitter and backpage from liability over what users post. many argue it is a necessary protection. but the law may provide cover for unscrupulous companies to facilitate the sex trafficking of the children. >> is it fueling the growth of sex trafficking? >> the numbers are there. absolutely. absolutely. this is criminal conduct. it is not protected. we shouldn't pretend any statute will give them some cover. >> coming up tonight at 11:00, how back page operates. who is trying to shut it down and why a senate sub committee concluded that the online marketplace knowingly facilitates child sex trafficking. 11:00. thank you. meanwhile, julian assange says his legal team will contact u.k. officials to seek a way forward to resolve his status. today swedish prosecutors dropped the rape charge against the wikileaks founder but the british police say t