More Than 600 People and Counting Accused of Katrina Fraud, Some Far From Gulf Coast Area

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

More Than 600 People and Counting Accused of Katrina Fraud, Some Far From Gulf Coast Area

04-01-2007 7:13 PM
By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer

(Associated Press) -- An Illinois woman mourns her two young daughters, swept to their deaths in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. It's a tragic and terrifying story. It's also a lie.

An Alabama woman applies for disaster aid for hurricane damage. She files 28 claims for addresses in four states. It's all a sham.

Two California men help stage Internet auctions designed to help Katrina relief organizations. Those, too, are bogus.


The 17th Street Canal flood gates are seen in New Orleans, in this July 10, 2006, file photo. More than 18 months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, authorities are chipping away at a mountain of fraud cases that, by some estimates, involve thousands of people who bilked the federal government and charities out of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to aid storm victims. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

More than 18 months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, authorities are chipping away at a mountain of fraud cases that, by some estimates, involve thousands of people who bilked the federal government and charities out of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to aid storm victims.

Read more: http://omaha.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8O84LQO0&_action=validatearticle

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

1. This is precisely what the RWers use to deny help to the needy.

They do the same in denying any form of justice: always pointing to the frauds (as even they tend to be) in order to deny compassion to the innocents.

Their world view is so ugly, they have given up their capacity to be either empathetic or compassionate, let alone caring for their fellow human beings.

It is sad,...sad to see human beings become monstrous because they choose to be angry, cynical and aggressive rather than the better of themselves.

[stillcool]

2. kind of like ..

ambulance chasers....chasing misery to steal a piece of the action.

[Doremus]

3. 1500 Shrubbo appointees accused of committing fraud

... or should be.

Doesn't matter WHAT the angle, there's a certain percentage of the population that's dishonest. Dem, Repug, white, black, brown ...

It's not right but it will always be so.

In the meantime, I love it when RWers ignore the $500 bills flying out of their back pocket while they bend over to pick up a penny. Which is to say the money 600 fraudsters stole during Katrina isn't half-an-hour's interest on the boatloads of cash "upstanding" government crooks help themselves to at our expense.

[pitohui]

4. no they need to aggressively track down and punish these frauds and here's why

many katrina victims were unable to get electricity or cell phone or any phone service to apply for their assistance, by the time they were able to, they didn't get anything, because records showed that "they" had already received the aid

someone -- and not local someones, but people in distant states where they perfectly well had electric, phone, and internet -- were using the names and addresses of real louisiana residents/victims to grab their assistance

someone close to me had this happen and was unable to get aid, and i've heard other people say it happened to them as well -- once a fraud stole their address, then the real person would later be unable to get any aid for that address

i have no use for somebody up in california or alabama or wherever stealing names/addresses to cash in while people who were actually in the disaster end up being denied

it isn't a matter of $500 flying out of the back pocket while bending to pick up a penny, it's that behavior like this needs to be swiftly and harshly punished because otherwise sociopathic predators will do this again and again and again every time there's a large disaster where the victims themselves are unable to communicate w. the outside world

these disasters are not going to go away, and when i'm running for my life unable to get anything but a "beep" on my damn cell phone, i don't need some jerkwad in another state using my personal information to cash in

keep in mind, all many of these frauds had to do was open a phone book and get names/addresses, it isn't like i can keep my name/address secret information

[OHdem10]

5. There is a practical attitude which has to be assumed

in any disaster where relief is being provided. Those
in charge should realize there are and always will be
"cheaters" "scammers" whatever. While 600 may sound
like a lot, measure that against all the aid that was
distributed and the numbers of people harmed by Katrina
that 600 is only a speck. In other words , when you
give to good and needy there is always going to be
someone trying to game the system. Chalk it up to
bad luck.

WE MUST NEVER PERMIT ANYONE TO USE THIS AS AN EXCUSE
FOR NOT DOING GOOD. This is a Republican tactic (Conservative)
Tactic to avoid providing basic services.

Try Doing More Good---You will become expert at picking
out the scammers.

When you believe in government and rcognize Government
has a serious role to play, you will develop skills
to minimize the cheaters. No excuse for not doing
right by our citizens.

[pitohui]

6. agreed

i see no practical alternative other than getting the aid to the people in a timely fast fashion and then aggressively punishing the scammers who would take advantage of something like this to enrich themselves

it is especially evil when the scammer has used another person's identity and prevented that person from being able to get aid as happened to some people w. fema and/or red cross (my friend whose identity was taken could not get aid from either since by their records he had already received it!)

those scammers in distant states had an edge in grabbing the aid through online applications because they could get online, put in a name/address and claim the new (distant) address as the place they evacuated to -- meanwhile, the real person has no power, doesn't know the news or only has a weather radio and knows only a fraction of the help out there and can't apply for it anyway -- by the time the real person is where they can get to the internet and apply, then they find their address taken by a scammer -- it's infuriating to say the least

we should do right by our citizens AND aggressively punish opportunistic sociopaths to the full extent of the law

the online fema aid was good because it did get $$$ quickly to people who had evacuated and needed $$$ to pay hotel, food, and the ridiculous gas expenses BUT people who abuse this by applying when they are from out of the region and never lived here, those people should be getting their free meals and lodging in a federal prison if you ask me

what kind of lowlife hears about something like this and immediately tries to think of any louisiana or mississippi person they ever met so they can use their information to make a few thousand bucks at the expense of the real storm victim?

[qwlauren35]

7. It's the TYPE of Fraud that Worries Me.

And I hope it will be taken extremely seriously, because in this case and in every case like this, the victims are especially vulnerable.

This is identity theft.

And my concern is that it will happen every time there is a regional disaster.

Imagine how ugly it would have been if people had stolen the identities of those killed in the World Trade Center, or the identities of their loved ones.

On the other hand, I think we would have tracked down such "losers" and thrown the book at them.

The same needs to be done here. Some reasonable amount of money needs to be spent to catch those participating in identity theft, and they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.