Douglas Elliman Real Estate failed to safeguard sensitive personal and financial information, resulting in a loss of $60K to me (homebuyer). Though it was their agent’s e-mail account that was breached and used it to commit this crime, they accept no responsibility whatsoever. Beverly Hills ca

It pains me to write this but after waiting a year for Douglas Elliman California to do the right thing, it has become clear that they have no intention of doing so. A quick recap: I worked with an agent from the Douglas Elliman office in Beverly Hills to assist me in buying my first home. At some point a criminal got access to my real estate agent's e-mail account, which contained a wealth of information about me, others involved in the process, as well as timelines, costs, and other details of the purchase. As we were closing, the criminal used the information contained in my agent's e-mails, and the continuous access to her account, to generate a message to mem containing fraudulent wiring instructions for the closing funds. The e-mail having come from her verified account, I followed the instructions - resulting in a loss to me of nearly $60,000 in cash. It took a few hours, and a few confused exchanges between me and my agent, to figure out what had happened but by then the wire transfer had cleared and the funds were in the hands of the thief.

Since then I have worked with the authorities tirelessly to recover any of the stolen funds directly, and I've also reached out to Douglas Elliman on multiple occasions to come to an understanding of how they view their role in this incident. Those attempts have been rebuffed (or ignored) with a cold "sorry about your luck" and a claim of absolutely zero responsibility. This despite the fact that it was their agent's insecure e-mail account that put the bullseye on my back and enabled the crime - from start to finish. I don't know when or how my agent's e-mail was compromised, or what Douglas Elliman's security guidelines are for handling sensitive information gathered through communication with its clients, but it's evident that the safeguards (if any) in place to protect my data were inadequate. 

A 30-second conversation with my agent about the risk of this type of financial scheme would have been enough to alert me and this never would have happened. But we never discussed any of these risks, though surely as an organization they were aware that this was happening. At the time of the incident my agent claimed to have never heard of such a thing. Of course, if my agent's e-mail account had been secure I wouldn't have been targeted in the first place.

I have not had the opportunity to discuss this with anyone at Douglas Elliman, and I have contacted them across all channels and all levels - right up to the Chairman and the CEO - so I have no idea if they have made any changes to their policies that would help to spare future home buyers from suffering my fate. 

So if you do choose to conduct business with this firm, please stay aware at all times of potential criminal attacks against you and DO NOT rely upon Douglas Elliman to protect your information or to warn you about criminal schemes that are well-known in the real estate industry. And understand that if you do suffer a loss as a direct result of their policies and practices, you will find yourself 100% on your own, as their company values seem to be to take their commission and run. Good luck and STAY AWARE.