Claims News Service, Oct. 18, 3:10 p.m. EDT -- Robert M. Bryant, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), announced this week that a special online database consisting of motor vehicles and boats affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is being made available for the public to search in an effort to protect them from fraudulent sellers.

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina passed through the Gulf Coast, special NICB catastrophe teams established two operations centers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama, to begin the process of identifying and cataloging vehicles and watercraft affected by these hurricanes.

Working in partnership with the Louisiana State Police Insurance Fraud Unit and insurance company investigators, NICB created a database for vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and boat hull identification numbers (HINs) in order to track those affected by either hurricane.

This data is made available to law enforcement, state fraud bureaus, insurance companies, and state departments of motor vehicles as a result of a unanimous desire to keep future innocent consumers from being victimized by unscrupulous auto and watercraft sellers.

Effective immediately, anyone can log on to www.nicb.org and query a suspected VIN or HIN--free of charge--against NICB's regularly-updated database to find out if there is a match.

"NICB's ability to bring this tremendous public service to the nation's consumers is due entirely to the support of the property and casualty insurance industry, Gulf Coast law enforcement, particularly the Louisiana State Police, and private salvage companies," said Mr. Bryant.

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