BP oil spill and bogus claims

Someone's always willing to steal the money from the orphans! Not that we see BP as an orphan but whenever there is disaster and people are suffering, you will find crooks trying to take advantage.

Be very careful about giving out information. There have been reports of Gulf Coast residents being scammed by people going door-to-door posing as oil company employees. These people are collecting personal information. They are also trying to charge money for training related to spill-response employment.

There have been reports that commercial fishing license applications went up by 60% after the April 20th Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion.

If you are making a BP claim for loss of income due to not being able to fish then that license is a necessary part of the documentation. Apparently there have been over 103,000 payments approved totaling almost $320 million. Naturally, BP is going to be taking steps to try to catch any fraudulent claims.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said reports of oil spill fraud should be directed to a hotline operated by the National Center for Disaster Fraud, which was created to investigate and prosecute fraud related to Hurricane Katrina.

Tips should be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud, (866) 720-5721. The line is staffed by a live operator 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, e-mails can be sent to vog.oel|retsasid#vog.oel|retsasid or information can be faxed to (225) 334-4707.

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