Timothy Devon Huntley Jr., of Eugene, Ore., bilked 11 national insurance companies for $196,854 using an elaborate scheme. The incident has challenged car insurance companies like Geico, one of the companies scammed by Huntley, to revamp communications between departments.

Huntley’s scam worked like this: He would call insurance companies and take out policies on a series of used cars, using fictitious names, birth dates and bogus identification. A few days later, before paying his first premium, Huntley would contact the insurer and report accidentally hitting and damaging another vehicle.

Again, Huntley used fictitious information on the damaged vehicle, providing an address where he could receive the settlement checks himself. The vehicles that were damaged were typically used cars Huntley purchased, but that were higher end. The newly-insured cars were older used cars and of little value, also purchased by Huntley.

The scam worked at least 30 times over a period of about three years. He fooled Geico 13 times. He even made three different claims of the same damage to a 2007 Chysler 300 sedan.

Insurance companies that were affected have revised their claim verification policies, and have changed policies regarding communication between the people writing the policies and those collecting the premiums for them.

Police say between October 2007 and August 2008, Hurley opened $60,500 worth of credit card accounts at Lowe’s and Best Buy using the 121 stolen identities, and may be part of an extensive identity theft ring.

Hurley has 17 prior felony convictions and spent more than three years in a state prison.

Hurley was arrested October 9, following what seemed like an ordinary traffic stop. The car’s driver, Christopher Milazzo, was also arrested and is suspected of being a co-conspirator in the identity theft ring.

According to court documents, police found numerous credit applications from Henry Brown Buick-Pontiac-GMC during the traffic stop.

The dealership is cooperating with the identity theft investigation, and gave police documentation that indicates Hurley may have stolen the identities of at least four customers during July and August 2008.

Kristen Rodriguez believes she’s one of those four victims. Within a week of buying a car at the Henry Brown dealership, a Best Buy account had been opened by somebody using her name. Shortly after that, a T-Mobile account and several other credit lines were opened in her name.

“I was closing accounts as fast as new ones were opening,” Rodriguez said. “The amount of time you have to spend is unimaginable.

Rodriguez said she spent dozens of hours trying to fix her credit, but her credit score was still 150 points lower than it was before the identity theft.

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There were approximately 800 contracts in the boxes, all from car purchases made in 2006.

The corporate office in nearby Hempstead said neither Souza or Whitmer had ever been employees, and they have no idea how they got the contracts. In fact, they weren’t even aware the contracts were missing, though they say they go to extreme measures to protect their customers’ information.

The contracts contain the car buyers’ names, address, drivers’ license numbers and Social Security numbers.

“We’re talking potentially hundreds of victims that could be affected by this thing,” said Victor Senties of the Houston Police Department.

Souza and Whitmer have been arrested and are still in jail today. Both have been charged with fraudulent use of and possession of identifying information. They also face narcotic charges.

Senties recommended that consumers who bought cars from the Lawrence Marshall dealership in 2006 should get copies of their credit reports immediately, and check for any strange activity that may indicate they’ve already become victims of identity theft. He also said they should place fraud alerts on their credit files.

When new members enroll in LifeLock’s comprehensive identity theft protection services, the company’s first steps are to help the customers get credit reports and place fraud alerts on their credit files.

But that’s only the start of their identity protection strategy. Visit LifeLock.com to find out why almost 1.5 million Americans trust LifeLock to help protect their credit, their finances and their names.

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