Email Elizabethtips for docusign users
Beware of a Hacked Email From DocuSign
Usually when I receive a suspicious email from another Sacramento Realtor, I send it back with a warning to let the agent know somebody might have hacked that email account. If it looks like they have attached something, perhaps an offer, I also mention that I don’t open unsolicited links. If they want to send me a document, then send it as an attachment. I’m extremely careful about what I click on, yet I realize the day will come when something malicious will get through; it’s just a matter of when, but I never expected to see a hacked email from DocuSign with an envelope.
Oh, sure, there are the goofy gmail stuff that ask recipients to click on a link, and most appear really hokey. Of course, if you’re overly busy and less prone to caution, I can see how an agent might be tempted to click on it. No agent wants to not open a purchase offer on her Sacramento listing. There are a lot of cyber attacks going on in gmail accounts, probably because they are so prevalent.
The hacked email from DocuSign I received this morning looked real. Very real. I studied it for a while. It was yellow and blue, just like the DocuSign emails I get from myself when I sign my own listings and purchase contracts online. It even had the access code displayed in case a person did not want to click on the “review documents” link. Best I could tell it was missing the App link. However, let me caution you that if you decide to use the access code that DocuSign provides in each and every email, do NOT click on the DocuSign link in the email. Open a new browser window and go to DocuSign yourself to enter the code.
I have received a bunch of offers on a new listing in Sacramento that just went pending. I suspected if there was an important document sent to me via DocuSign, it will most likely for that listing. Sometimes lazy agents who think they are being proactive and efficient will cc the listing agent on an offer in DocuSign, so after all of the parties have signed the offer, DocuSign will automatically send the purchase offer to the listing agent. I prefer to email directly to confirm receipt. Less chance for error.
Fortunately for this Sacramento Realtor, I have a software program that detects malicious hacks and viruses. After I finished studying the DocuSign email and clicked on it, it opened a window that said I should NOT proceed to that website because it was dangerous. Yup, it was a hacked email from DocuSign. I’m afraid other Sacramento Realtors and customers of DocuSign might not be so lucky.
See, this is just one MORE reason to always include a special message intended for the recipient like I do on my DocuSign transmissions. But even that is not sufficient. To be completely safe, you should probably use the code and go directly to DocuSign, if in doubt.
What will they come up with next? It’s anybody’s guess. You can never be too diligent to protect your computer against vicious cyber attacks.
How to Help Senior Real Estate Clients Use the Internet
When people my age complain about using the internet, I like to point out that this Sacramento real estate agent has been online for 23 years, having first signed up for a Bulletin Board in 1991, at which time my first sentence ever composed online was swiped from Steve Martin: I was born a poor black child. That experience prepared me for eWorld in 1994 using my very own 900-baud dial-up modem. I was so excited. I wasn’t using the internet much for my real estate business back then, it was much more a network of people, unlike the spam and mass product marketing of today.
It takes a while for some older people to become comfortable using a computer. Of course, I can recall when we had no computers. And then in the 1980s when only secretaries used computers, which forced us Type A personalities to say, oh, crap, just give it to me and I’ll do it. I bought my first IBM clone in 1988 and promptly took the computer apart to examine its hard drive, and then put it back together again. I read the DOS Bible at night to understand how they worked.
I used one of the first voice mail systems to run a pet recovery business on the side, called Pet Crisis Hotline. But I didn’t use a computer for real estate.
When Apple pulled the plug on eWorld and shut it down, I was devastated. Completely crushed. That happened, I believe, around 1995 – 1996. We knew it was coming because Apple informed us of that impending doom. It meant eWorld users would have to switch over to AOL, which would cost twice as much and we didn’t know anybody at AOL. Waahh. It was a strange new land.
I try to use my former experiences when I work with senior real estate clients who struggle with the computer. They don’t know how easy they have it because they don’t know how hard it used to be. Before Xtree came along, we had to use DOS all of the time. That was like slumping through the mud in a Goldie Hawn GI uniform, crying in the rain. Real misery. I have known real misery, and I never want my clients to know it.
When I first introduce my senior real estate clients to DocuSign, for example, I upload a one page form I created entitled TEST, with their name on it; it’s personalized to make it friendly. I walk them through how to set up a signature and sign that initial test page. Then, when we get an offer, their information is already in the DocuSign system and it’s easy-peasy for them. There is no heart attack panic to get it signed or computer crash concerns.
If you’re looking for a Sacramento real estate agent who shows compassion, even if her senior clients are not tech savvy, you’ve come to the right place. Let my experience guide you. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
