The official hurrican Katrina fraud, abuse, and ripoff thread

No, it wasn't.

 

A co-worker of my wife was volunteering at the George R. Brown when they were signing up people for the debit cards. There are 2 debit cards, one from the red cross for $300 - $1600 depending on how big your family is...PLUS the FEMA card for $2000.

Well, the line was around the block for the cards.

Apparently every homeless person in Houston plus anyone who wanted to try to get some free money showed up to stand in line. There were like 10 times as many people in line that were actually in the George R Brown shelter.

Anyways...they had to spend like 14 hours sorting people out to find the people that actually qualified and deserved it. They had pretty strict guidelines to prove who got the card and who didn't...you had to be registered in a shelter, prove you were from the affected area, ect.

Anyways...only 1 out 5 people in line actually qualified...the rest were people just trying to get free money.

It got to the point to where the cops keeping the line from getting rowdy said that if you got up and didn't qualify and they found out you were trying to scam...they were going to arrest you. Apparently most of the people in line left at that point to allow the people that deserved the cards get them.

Sick.

 

One of the homeless guys that stands on one of the corners on my way to work every few days long before the hurricane changed his normal sign from "Disabled Vet NEED HELP" to "Lost everything in the flood-- Need help to get food" ..I wanted to spit at him as I drove by.. It's sad how people try to scam off the misfortunes of others..

 

I heard over the weekend about some one in Atlanta used the card for an $800 purse.

 

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/special_packages/hurricane_katrina/12625517.htm

N.C. woman accused of Katrina fraud

Associated Press


KERNERSVILLE, N.C. - A 22-year-old Kernersville woman faces a court date at the end of the month to answer to a charge of fraudulently soliciting money for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

Heather Parrish was charged with one count of obtaining property by false pretense and one count of attempting to obtain property by false pretense.

Court records say Parrish claimed to be a member of the National Guard collecting money for the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and obtained 20 dollars from a man. She reportedly asked another woman for money.

The records say Parrish was not affiliated with the National Guard and did not have authority to collect donations on their behalf.

Parrish was released from custody after posting 500 dollars bond. Her court date is set for September 30th.


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Sorry to be off topic for a second, but I hate it when a relatively young homeless guy asks for money or food by holding up a "Disabled Vietnam Vet" sign when it's obvious there is no way in hell they could've been in the Vietnam War. It just irks the hell out of me.

Anyways, back on topic...call me skeptical and paranoid, but I find myself questioning and questioning where my money goes in terms of donations these days. We donated, and my gf's company matched our donations, and I sincerly hope that our money acutally gets to these victims, but as I am getting older I am beginning to believe that there is so much corruption in organizations (and goverment) that I'm becoming more and more jaded with our society. Sorry for the rant...I'm glad I can rely on the ClutchBBS forums as a source of good and honest people.

 

I read your entire thread and was wondering what exactly you thought was sick. The people? The organization or lack thereof? The people in line? FEMA?

I would say it was the right way to weed out people. Don't know why, or what exactly, they had to do it this way, but it worked.

 

I think he meant it's sick that some people would try to profit over others' misfortune.

 

Saddly there's a lot of scams and scammers out there looking to take advantage of tragedy. After 9/11 there were a lot along with the tsunami and its no surprise to me that there are now.

One of worst ones that I've heard of involves an email scam from Australia that sends an email saying its from the Red Cross. When you click on the link it takes you to a site that looks almost exactly like the Red Cross, including the Verisign security icon. After you make your payment it directs you to the real Red Cross site. The Red Cross doesn't send out spam email solicitations so be very suspicious if you get an email claiming to be from the Red Cross.

As far as dealing with scams the best thing to do is confine your giving to reputable well known groups by directly contacting them and groups that you know and trust. Unfortunately there will always be scams and its a given that some money and aid will be lost to scammers. The most you can do is donate with a good heart and its on their heads those who take advantage of others.

 

To no one's surprise......

Insurance Companies are weaseling out of covering N.O. residents

Evan

 

I think its sick for people to try to collect money intended for victims of a horrible tragedy when they don't deserve it.