This is an update to a story FOX 4 first broke last week.
A metro car dealer is accused of operating the biggest identity theft scam in Missouri. State and local prosecutors have filed 17 felony charges against car dealer Terry Lee Morrow who court records accuse of raking in nearly a half of a million dollars from the scam.
Morrow, 25, owned car dealerships in Blue Springs and Independence, using the name Edge Auto. Court records allege that he took the personal information of former customers and used it to make fake drivers licenses and fake loan contracts on cars he never sold. Then, prosecutors says, he sold those fake loans to real automotive finance companies. Those finance companies paid Morrow nearly a half a million dollars in cash for more than a million dollars in loans.
Prosecutors say it wasn’t until one customer noticed the fake loan on her credit report and alerted the attorney general’s office that the scam was uncovered. So far, Attorney General Chris Koster says 44 Jackson County residents are believed to have had their identity stolen. And it doesn’t stop there.
“He even opened a fake dealership in the name of one of his victims,” Koster said, “in order to fabricate even more loans from that dealership.”
The address he used for that fake dealership? If it were real, it would have been located in the middle of the Missouri River. By the time the attorney general and Jackson County prosecutors had caught on to Morrow, he’d already left town.
He was arrested two weeks ago in Illinois where he is accused of operating another dealership and fabricating more loans. Morrow is now in jail in Illinois and is awaiting extradition to Missouri where the fraud charges he’s facing carry a longer sentence.
Prosecutors believe more victims may still be out there. If you bought a car from Terry Morrow or Edge Auto, the Missouri attorney general’s office would like to talk to you. You can contact them at 800-392-8222.
