NYC granny loses life savings to online scam — and she’s placing the blame on banks: lawsuit

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. 

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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.

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. 

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“We are extremely disappointed the banks have not acted according to reasonable professional standards. We are left with no choice but to bring this lawsuit, which we hope will bring real change to the banks’ policies and procedures, lessening the chances this will happen to others,” said Stephen Kuhn, the granny’s nephew-in-law. 

On top of being stripped of her financial means to participate in activities she loves – including theater, dinners with friends, traveling and gift-giving – Mortellito has wrestled with “a heavy sense of guilt” since falling victim to the scam, her family told The Post.

Mortellito and her lawyer are seeking unspecified damages against the banks, whom they’re suing for negligence.

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“The banks need to take reasonable steps to protect their customers, especially the elderly, who are uniquely susceptible to online scammers. Here, the banks repeatedly failed to exercise due diligence which caused [Mortellito] to lose her life savings,” said Mortellito’s lawyer, Robert Georges of Konta Georges & Buza PC. 

“We are proud of our client and her family’s bravery in coming forward and we are going to hold these institutions responsible,” Georges added. 

Bank of America, which owns Merrill Lynch,  did not have a comment when contacted by The Post Friday.

UBS Bank declined to comment and TD Bank said it does not comment on pending litigation.