3 October: Tens of thousands of claims are flooding into the HQ of BP’s $20 billion compensation fund. Its job is to lessen the hardship endured by people whose livelihoods have been wrecked by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

But many thousands of these claims have little or no evidence to support them. Not even the minimum needed to process them. Many look downright fraudulent. Processing the claims and sorting the real from the bogus is a tough job for the fund administrators led by Kenneth R Feinberg.

Disaster compensation funds always attract fraudsters. So much so that there is now a National Center for Disaster Fraud which prosecuted over 1,300 cases after Hurricane Katrina. The Center has already had 300 tip offs about suspect oil spill claims. Center Director Jim Letten said it will ‘actively pursue’ anyone who attempts fraud.