Prepare for the Coronavirus Scams: Learning From Post-9/11 Fraud

Daily News
1 minute read | April.08.2020

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Beatrice Kaufman sat in her Hamptons house watching the Twin Towers collapse. Although she lived and worked in Manhattan, her 6,000-square-foot apartment was being renovated, so she stayed at her country home instead.

But that did not stop her from filing papers with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and her insurance company claiming that the attacks caused her to have to leave her apartment suddenly and unexpectedly, and looking for them to pay the half-million dollars the renovation would have cost anyway. Fortunately, the Manhattan district attorney's office foiled the scam, and Kaufman landed behind bars.