The fraud hotline that BP has been advertising in the Pensacola News Journal and other daily newspapers along the Gulf Coast has been hijacked by protestors upset the British oil giant for not paying legitimate claims as the result of the 2010 BP oil disaster that dumped over 200 million gallons of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
Last week, Gulf Coast residents started a grassroots campaign through Facebook to hit back at the firm—SCAM-WOW!! Call BP Out on FRAUD Line! They claim that the incident has created misery and suffering for everyone living in the area.
The “snitch lineâ€, as described by the grassroots ogranizers, offers a reward for anyone willing to report neighbors for making false claims. Instead protestors want residents to use the telephone number to report fraud on BP’s part.
Here is the post from the Facebook page:
By now we’ve all seen BP’s desperate attempts to back out of the settlement agreement they signed in March of 2012. In the agreement, BP and it’s fleet of high priced lawyers agreed to pay claims which they estimated would total $7.8 billion. Bob Dudley himself even went so far as to say the settlement reflected BP’s “commitment not only to the Gulf region, but also to the United States as a whole,”
Which is ironic, since beyond their willingness to destroy our land, air and water in a fiendish rush to extract, refine and profit from every last drop of our oil, BP’s just not that committed to the Gulf – or to the United States as a whole. Their actions and priorities speak loud and clear – we are expendable.
Which brings us to another irony. That estimated $7.8 billion estimate was just that – an estimate. It’s ironic that BP never did fully understand or acknowledged the extent of the devastation their 87 day oil gusher brought to the hard-working people of the Gulf Coast. That is until now.
Because now that they’re forced to actually pay the claims (and not just let Feinberg play shell games), BP’s having an awakening – this disaster might just cost them more than $7.8 billion. The settlement is uncapped for a reason – no one really knew during negotiations exactly how many people had been harmed by BP’s disaster. Now maybe BP is starting to understand, to feel the pain – in the only place they feel pain – their bottom line.
See, for us, pain is losing eleven of our fathers, brothers and sons. Pain is watching oil spew into our ecosystem for 87 days, pain is losing our way of life, losing our ability to fish for a living, our ability to feed our families through grit and hard work, as of us have done for generations. Pain is losing our economic base – whether it be losing customers in our restaurants, our shops or losing tourists, whose dollars pay the rent, feed our kids and put roofs over our heads. Pain is seeing the land and water that has sustained us for generations filled with oil and sprayed with toxic dispersants, seeing our dolphins and turtles dying at unprecedented rates. Pain is seeing our children, our babies, suffering with bleeding noses, rashes, headaches and sickness. Pain is knowing that no matter what the commercials and full-page ads in the New York Times say, no matter what the Joe Nocera’s of the world say, the OIL IS STILL HERE!
And now, to add insult to injury, BP is claiming to be the victim – that’s right, BP’s spin doctors are busy claiming that Gulf Coast residents and lawyers are “cashing in” on BP’s “generosity”.
And they even have a fraud line. That’s right, a fraud line…where they think we’re going to call to report the fraud committed by our neighbors, friends and relatives. This “snitch” line even comes with the promise of a reward if our information leads to an indictment.
Really.
So….let’s report some fraud. They asked for it, they got it. They’ve certainly committed enough of it. Starting Monday, August 5th, the 3rd anniversary of the day BP and our government declared most of the oil “gone”, let’s flood that fraud line with reports of fraud – BP FRAUD.
Let’s see….we’ve got:– lying about the initial flow rate
– lying to Congress
– not telling cleanup workers they were being exposed to TOXIC chemicals
– those commercials
– not paying legitimate claims
– not providing safety equipment to our folks who worked clean-up
– entering into a settlement agreement they appear to have no intention on keepingWe could go on and on….but you got this. You’ve been here for the past 3 years, you know BP and you know your own experiences. So let’s get organized and let’s make those calls. And after you’re done, send us a quick message to let us know how it went.
1-855-NO-2-FRAUD (1-855-662-3728)