USATODAY.com - Suspected scams tucked into near-record Katrina giving

USATODAY.com - Suspected scams tucked into near-record Katrina giving: "
Posted 11/13/2005 9:58 PM


Suspected scams tucked into near-record Katrina giving
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
In the days after Hurricane Katrina hit, visitors to AirKatrina.com read wrenching accounts of rescue missions flown into the Gulf Coast by Florida pilot Gary Kraser.

'If we didn't have the plane, I don't think the little baby would have survived,' Kraser wrote. 'She is undergoing transplant surgery at this moment.'

But the stories that helped inspire 48 people to donate nearly $40,000 were a lie, prosecutors say. There were no sick babies, they allege, no rescues, not even any flights by Kraser, who now stands charged with fraud.

As Hurricanes Katrina and Rita generate near-record-breaking charitable giving, they also are spawning a cottage industry of fraud."