BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Department of Insurance issued a warning Wednesday to residents about online scams related to Hurricane Francine insurance claims.

LDI said that it has detected an increase in online advertising activity related to Francine, noting that some of it is attempting to mislead or scam consumers recovering from the storm.

LDI said it is aware of a recent instance where scammers created a website to exploit trending searches, phish personal information, transmit viruses and send malware under the guise of helping with relief. Google has labeled the site to make consumers aware of its predatory activity, LDI said.

“Though we have increased our focus on insurance fraud activities and invested in new programs to monitor for these bad actors, I’m urging residents to use caution when searching for insurance information online, particularly searches related to Hurricane Francine insurance claims,” Commissioner Tim Temple said. “We will continue to actively monitor for this type of activity and take appropriate action to protect consumers.”