If You Forward a DocuSign Email

A third party can sign your DocuSign envelope if you forward the email.

Imagine my shock when I received an executed document returned in a DocuSign email that I had rejected. It was a puzzling situation, and something you should know if you are using digital online signing services. First, a buyer’s agent sent me the DocuSign envelope, and I could see in the email that it referred to a listing and contained a confidentiality agreement. There are reasons to sign a confidentiality agreement, but not when I am the listing agent and it is my sellers . . ..

Instead of signing the email or even opening the email, I replied to the email, which was returned to the buyer’s agent. I let the sender know I did not agree to sign the confidentiality agreement. The next thing I discovered, within minutes the DocuSign envelope was returned executed. With my signature. And I didn’t sign it.

How did this happen?

Well, first I have a few things to say about agents who send confidentiality agreements and how troubling it is, this level of distrust and paranoia, but I won’t say it. It’s clearly evident due to the fact the agent forwarded my DocuSign reply to the agent’s office manager, asking: Can she do that? Can she refuse to sign? The answer to that, of course, is yes. That’s why I am a top Sacramento Realtor.

In this particular case, the agent had forwarded the email envelope I had rejected to a busy office manager. The office manager — used to receiving digital documents, which apparently are not always scrutinized in detail by the manager — just signed it. With my name. By mistake. Thank goodness, the manager noticed. The office manager then called me to explain how my signature ended up on a document I did not sign.

Fortunately, DocuSign has procedures in place that reflect the IP address and location where the document was signed, which would prove I did not sign the document. Still, it’s a little discomforting to discover that if you forward a DocuSign email to a third party, that third party is able to sign on behalf of the original recipient.

If you would like to talk with a top listing agent in Sacramento who has your back, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.