Twenty-five people answering phones on the third floor of Johnston Hall are the first line of defense against fraudsters hoping to scam federal aid during disasters.These students answer calls about alleged fraud. After following a script and logging the claim in a database, agents from 20 different federal agencies investigate the cases to execute any necessary arrests.”Any fraud scheme at all … to exploit the damages caused by this Gulf Disaster … will not be tolerated,” said Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.Letten, who is also executive director for the National Center for Disaster Fraud, spoke Tuesday morning during a news conference in NCDF’s Johnston Hall headquarters. He announced new efforts to stop fraud related to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.The center launched the Gulf Coast Disaster Fraud Hotline on Monday to handle cases related to the spill. A public campaign to raise awareness and attract whistle blowers is also underway.Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice said the NCDF needs the public’s help to know when fraud occurs. Tips may be phoned, emailed or faxed to the center, and whistle blowers may remain anonymous.Breuer said the NCDF is looking for people taking advantage of the current disaster and taking money from victims. While simple types of fraud have been committed in the past, Breuer said the NCDF is also looking “for that which we don’t even know.”A minority of people using entitlement programs are committing fraud, Breuer said.”Our goal is not to go after a fisherman, but to go after the fraudster who pretends to be a fisherman,” Breuer said. Letten said the center, which is part of the Department of Justice, fields about 200 calls of alleged fraud every week, but many won’t be actual cases. The number of calls related to the recent oil spill isn’t yet quantifiable.The center handles fraud related to “any natural or man-made disasters” including cases related to Hurricane Katrina.Letten said the center handles personal claims, fake charities, business issues and “more complex fraud” like public corruption cases.Twenty different agencies — including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service — investigate these national fraud cases from the Johnston Hall office. Workers at the center have fielded more than 39,000 complaints of possible disaster-related fraud since opening in 2005. More than 25,000 of those cases were referred to law enforcement for further investigation.Letten said Lamar Advertising Company donated space on more than 50 digital billboards from Galveston, Texas, to the Florida panhandle to promote the Gulf Coast Disaster Fraud Hotline. He said 500 posters are displayed across the region as well.
 
 
 
____Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]