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South Jersey Man Pays Dearly For Social Security Ripoff Set Up By Late Father

by KYW's David Madden

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) --  A Gloucester County man will do three years in prison, and pay back money fraudulently obtained through Social Security for almost three decades.

63-year-old Nicholas Severino of Paulsboro had benefitted from his father's working two jobs.

Only dad created two identities and two social security numbers, according to Elie Honig, Director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.

"When the father actually died, social security stopped to the father," Honig told KYW Newsradio, "but continued to be made in the name of the fake second person," Honig said.

Severino was listed on a joint bank account with that fake second person, named Frank DiCarlo, that netted some $700 a month from Social Security. That's over 240 thousand dollars between April 1984 and August 2013.

That's over $240,000 between April 1984 and August 2013.

By then "DiCarlo" would have turned 100, and the feds routinely check to make sure people that old are, in fact, alive.

That's how they caught up with Severino, who entered a plea deal almost two months ago.

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