Fraudsters and conmen cash in on city's tragedy

By DAVID USBORNE

Crime and fraud are worming their way into America's national tragedy.

The day after the families of more than 5000 victims of the World Trade Center attack were told they would each receive a wooden urn containing earth from the site to beat con men peddling phoney mementos, more reports of scams in New York have emerged.

Officials have already revealed that a grand jury is investigating claims that the Mafia diverted as much as 200 tonnes of twisted steel and metal from the site.

The steel, which should have been transported to a dumping ground on Staten Island, where all debris from the disaster site is being treated as part of a crime scene, was allegedly taken instead to three scrap metal depots.

The region is controlled by organised crime.

Officials also say they are investigating several cases of fraud over the internet.

One involved e-mails sent out soon after the attack, supposedly by a group of computer experts who claimed they were close to tracking down Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the assaults.

The e-mails appealed for money.

Authorities in New Mexico have alerted people to telephone callers seeking contributions to a non-existent fund called Firefighters in Need.

People were asked for their credit card numbers.

The insurance industry has also voiced concern about the dangers of fraudulent claims stemming from the World Trade Center catastrophe.

"Insurers will carefully investigate questionable claims and work with law enforcement agencies to arrest these scam artists," said John Eager, of the national Association of Independent Insurers.

Insurers, who face claims of up to $40 billion following the disaster, will be especially watchful, for instance, for claims for cars allegedly damaged or destroyed by the towers when they collapsed.

Some people might also be tempted to forge phoney receipts from companies that were located in the towers to make false business interruption claims.

If other commercial activities since the disaster do not qualify as criminal, they cross the good-taste barrier.

Vendors have taken to New York streets hawking "souvenir" photos of the towers burning and imploding, provoking outrage from the city's tabloid newspaper editors.

On Wednesday, 41 workers from the bond trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald became the first people missing after the attacks to be declared dead by a court.

Seven hundred Cantor Fitzgerald employees are believed to have perished.

All worked above the 100th floor of the first tower hit by a hijacked airliner.

President George W. Bush has made a second visit to New York since September 11.

Four days after the disaster he had stood, loudhailer in hand, praising the work of the rescuers.

This time he returned talking of economic rescue packages for the city and the country.

But he also told an elementary school class: "If you have any worries about what took place at the World Trade Center [your teachers] will help you.

"They will comfort you.

"They want to make sure you understand what went on."

Mr Bush made an entry in the classroom's posted list of why pupils are proud to be Americans: "I love America because I love freedom."

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