ATLANTA -- Georgia investigators served 80 arrest warrants Tuesday in a scam where the identities of dead people in five states were stolen to bolster the credit ratings of car buyers.

A southwest Georgia woman would troll newspaper obituaries to get the names of recently deceased people, then contacted an Internet search company that provides background checks to obtain the Social Security numbers, dates of birth and credit histories of the deceased, state investigators said.

The woman then sold fake IDs with the names of the deceased for $500 to $600 to people with bad credit, investigators say. The recipients would then use the stolen identities to buy cars. In a few cases, the identities of people still alive were stolen, sold and used to buy cars.

"The stolen identification is used to bolster the credit rating of a would-be car purchaser from a specific Atlanta-based dealership," said Vicki Metz, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Burea of Investigations. "That information of the deceased individual is then used as a co-signer on the loan application."

Authorities say such scams are made easy in an age when people's personal information is available for the right price or a click of a computer button, and they underscore the need for more laws that protect people from credit and identity fraud.

"When someone has died, people don't think to keep checking credit reports," said Linda Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego.

The probe started in January 2002 after a sergeant with the Crisp County Sheriff's Department checked his late uncle's credit report and noticed that the uncle was listed as a co-signer of a vehicle purchased after his death, said Danny Jackson, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation office in Americus.

"It was just like a snowball rolling downhill from there," Jackson said.

Roughly 100 vehicles ranging in price from $12,000 to $20,000 were purchased from an unnamed metro Atlanta car dealership over the last five years using stolen identities, mostly from dead people in Georgia, California, Virginia, Oklahoma and Ohio, Jackson said.

Employees at the car dealership are being looked at but have not been charged, Jackson said.

The woman accused of selling the stolen identities, Kwezeta Butler of Albany, is among the people facing charges, authorities said. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday because she was in custody.

All the people named in the arrest warrants live in Georgia. More than half were arrested by early afternoon Tuesday. Most will be charged with forgery, while Butler faces multiple charges, officials said.

"We have a lot left to do," Jackson said. "That's why we're trying to keep some information close to heart."

Foley said she has been lobbying lawmakers in Washington to pass legislation that makes sure deaths certificates in every state are sent to the Social Security Administration so that the numbers of people who have died can't be used by scam artists. Some states send death certificates, while others do not, she said.

"There is no mandatory reporting of deaths to the Social Security Administration. It is something we would like to see," Foley said.

Credit agencies can purchase a master list of people who have died so the death can be listed on their credit report, she said.