Catastrophes, he advised, bring out "the best and the worst in people," and with the federal government earmarking $52 billion for Katrina relief, "opportunistic individuals" will be scheming to get a slice of the pie.

He cited the case of a Homestead, Fla., woman who collected $24,755 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, claiming Hurricane Frances damaged her home with backed up sewage, omitting the fact that the backup occurred 20 weeks before the storm and that the house had been condemned before the hurricane arrived.

Mr. Burnette counseled his audience that when examining claims from a catastrophe, they should keep their eyes open, because there is an unlimited variety of insurance fraud, much of it perpetrated by persons seeking to make up the cost of their deductibles.

In viewing the televised coverage of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Burnette said his wife asked what was causing the fires burning in buildings throughout the city and he responded, "The lack of flood coverage."

Mr. Burnette said that in order to prepare for the inevitable influx of fraudulent claims that follow a catastrophe, insurers should take a proactive approach and have a protocol for referrals to their special investigation units.

He said that investigators can look forward to getting tips on fraud activity from neighbors, ex-spouses and law enforcement, as well as contractors who have been approached to do repair work in exchange for kickbacks.

Besides homeowners and corrupt contractors, fraud after disasters is committed by "just about everybody," including insurance agents and independent adjusters, Mr. Burnette warned.

Investigators, he advised, should be wary of insureds who seem too knowledgeable and those who seem in too big a hurry to settle or those who submit claims that "ask for the moon."

Mr. Burnette said investigators could also expect people impersonating insureds showing up to collect a check and persons faking pipe breakage damage or contending that items were missing from their homes because they were looted or "blown away."

One insured, he related, claimed after a hurricane that 53 handguns were blown away from a shack on his property. However, next to the structure were a pile of shoes and a stack of newspapers that were untouched. "We were skeptical [of the claim]," Mr. Burnette observed dryly.