War veteran's money, identity, stolen

CLIFTON, N.J. (WABC) -- Money that was supposed to be paid to an elderly man from his wife's life insurance agency was taken when a thief stole his identity.

"At this point, I'm pretty angry," said Nancy Britton, daughter.

You can't blame dutiful daughter, Nancy Britton.

Last January after a long illness, her mom passed away, leaving her in charge of her 92-year-old dad, an old world Italian who fought in World War II.

"I feel we were, that my dad has been cheated," Britton said.

Nancy's talking about two checks worth a total of nearly $32,000 paid out by Prudential Life Insurance on her mom's two policies.

They are checks that she says her dad never received and were cashed by someone else.

"Somebody stole his identity?" 7 On Your Side's Nina Pineda asked.

"Yes," Britton said.

Those checks wound up getting cashed at the Citibank in the Moshulu Park section of the Bronx.

Nancy says the man pretending to be her 92-year-old father was in his 40's was a non-resident alien with no social security number.

Yet that man opened an account there and started taking out money fast.

Within a month and a half after the checks were cashed, all the money was gone.

So Nancy started a fraud investigation.

But weeks later, it was denied saying the checks were cashed by her dad.

"I said it's impossible," Britton said.

Impossible because the 40-year-old thief even misspelled her dad's name when cashing the checks.

"There is an 'A' missing; the last name is spelled wrong. And they cashed a $20,000 check," Britton said.

"I'm being railroaded, that's what," said Alphonso Magliacane, a fraud victim.

So 7 On Your Side called Citibank, asking them to take a second look at their fraud investigation.

"We got an email yesterday from Citibank that told 7 On Your Side that they sent two checks for the full amount to refund you," Pineda said.

"Oh my God," Britton said.

Citibank and Prudential both thanked 7 On Your Side for bringing this problem to their attention, quickly sending out two replacement checks, this time both made it to this war vet.

"Thank you," Magliacane said.

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money, insurance fraud, 7 on your side, nina pineda

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