Posted on 10/04/2025 4:41:20 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
An Upper East Side granny lost her entire life savings to cold-hearted online scammers – and now, she’s taking her banks to court.
The twisted scheme began in August 2023, when a pop-up window on 86-year-old Nina Mortellito’s computer falsely warned her that her bank accounts had been hacked, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Over the next nine months, Mortellito – who suffers from age-related memory issues – was convinced by the fraudsters to withdraw a total of approximately $700,000 in a series of unusual withdrawals, and send them the dough for safekeeping, according to court papers.
She withdrew a total of around $275,000 from her Merrill Lynch accounts, and transferred it to the scammers, who had convinced her that the money must be converted into gold bullion in order to be secure, and wired another $150,000 from her TD Bank account to a gold bullion dealer in Texas, according to the court docs.
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The elderly woman also mailed off a $30,000 check, and took out over $100,000 from her accounts at UBS Bank at the fraudsters’ instructions, according to the suit.
The sudden and large transactions were completely out of character for Mortellito, whose withdrawals never topped $5,000 in the over 30 years that TD Bank managed her accounts, and in the two decades she banked with UBS, the court papers claimed.
The banks knew she was vulnerable to scammers and added her niece as a co-trustee to the accounts to increase “oversight and financial safeguards” in April 2022, according to the court docs.
But nobody at the banks raised any alarms, the lawsuit charged.
“We are extremely disappointed the banks have not acted according to reasonable professional standards. We are left with no choice but to...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
[Comment Deleted]
I’m not sure I want my bank and investment advisor to “raise alarms” if I change my withdrawal patterns. If the woman was mentally compromised, her family member should have arranged responsibility for her finances.
I know someone who was scammed in a similar manner and a similar amount. The scammers were convincing to her, even pretending they were representative of the bank as well as someone from the FBI.
Scary.
The Bank Examiner con is just about as old as banking.
While it is her money perhaps the banks should at least talk to her a bit and then maybe check when she says something like: “Oh, a nice young man who called me said to transfer the money to him so it would be safe.”
...at least screen out something that appears as OBVIOUS as this example.
If a gang of burglars hits a neighborhood, the cops will form a task force to fight them.
But no one seems to be fighting these filthy phone and email scammers. How hard can that be? Relentlessly call-flood their phone numbers. Relentlessly spam their emails.
A team of maybe 12 skilled computer technicians should be able to do the job. Come on, Feds. Just do it.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
SARS REPORTS MUST BE SENT TO FEDS WHEN ANYTHING OVER $10,000 is TRANSACTED.
IF SHE HAD BANKED WITH ANY BANK FOR 30 YEARS—— SOMEONE HAD TO KNOW SHE WAS ELDERLY & MAKING MOVES THAT WERE NOT NATURAL FOR HER HISTORY.
I have an out of state friend who has gone from an over 800 credit score and $2,000 SS monthly, to being broke, credit ruined, no more credit cards, and almost all of his SS going to payments (right now $500.00 a month for getting a job as an influencer going), he has fallen for scam after scam and I can’t seem to get across to him what the internet is, and what keeps happening to him.
I HOPE SHE WINS
There are many YouTube videos where people are able to hack into the scammers computer and live stream their webcams. They also often delete all the source files and crash their servers. It can destroy a 20+ man operation.
You are 100% correct. An older friend of mine withdrew $10,000 from his bank account to pay for home remodeling. It was all legitimate.
Yet a bank officer walked over, and very friendly-like asked my friend what the money was for. The bank gains nothing by asking! It was simply looking out for the customer.
And if someone wants to get all worked up and offended by that question, fine. Just don’t answer.
HOW MANY “SARS” REPORTS DID THE BANK FILE???
SAR== SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORT==ANYTHING OVER $10,000==MANDATORY REPORT
(UNLESS YOUR LAST NAME IS BIDEN)
DOGE WIZARDS—THEY CAN DO THIS
In the situation I referred to, the woman was coached that someone in the bank was part of the potential theft that they were protecting her from. The bank employees did try to intervene but she was coached.
Ultimately, it is her money and she could do what she wants with it.
Heck my husband (who is mostly in his right mind even if he did marry me) gets a notification from his bank if his credit card is used out of state or in a way that differs from the norm.
> They also often delete all the source files and crash their servers. It can destroy a 20+ man operation. <
Yes, that’s just what I’m talking about. Those YouTube scam-baiters are heroes. Why isn’t the federal government doing something similar, or even stronger? It would cost next to nothing.
The banks knew she was vulnerable to scammers and added her niece as a co-trustee to the accounts to increase “oversight and financial safeguards” in April 2022
The twisted scheme began in August 2023
All the trouble with her account happened AFTER her niece was added as trustee
How did the scam get so far without the niece not being alerted
Yeah it seems that US law enforcement is way behind private anti-scam advocates like “Scammer Payback” and “Pleasant Green”:
https://www.scammerpayback.org/about/special-projects/
https://www.youtube.com/@PleasantGreen/videos
The federal CFPB/FBI, etc. need to step it up...the former H1-B workers that cannot get back into the US will be starting new scam call centers in India.
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