Manhattan Couple Sues Lawyer For Ignoring To Protect Them From Hackers Who Stole $1.9M

A Manhattan couple are suing their lawyer whose email account was hacked, causing the couple to wire a $1.9 million down payment to an account allegedly stolen by online rogue.

Manhattan Couple Sues Lawyer For Ignoring To Protect Them From Hackers Who Stole $1.9M

Robert Millard is a managing partner at Realm Partners and his wife Bethany, the duo blamed their real estate lawyer, Patricia Doran, as Millard alleged thatDoran failed to protect her email account from hackers.

Ironically, the couple realized about the scam before the lawyer. The lawyer’s carelessness allowed the hackers to steal the 10% deposit for the purpose to buy Manhattan co-op for $19.4 million, according to a new lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court. The couple were able to recover all but $196,000 of their transferred funds.

“Through her negligence, she permitted cyber criminals to hack into her email system and read and intercept all of her communications,” states the Manhattan Supreme Court.

It accused Doran of forwarding bogus emails from the hackers who were imitating the seller of the apartments’s lawyer regarding payments from theMillards without verifying their legality last December. The couple also claimed that Doran was not even able to spot the fake confirmation email from the trickster as it consisted spelling error of lawyer’s names and a message that it would be absurd to reach the seller’s lawyers.

The couple had recruited Doran to manage the purchase of a co-op apartment with a selling price of $19.3 million.

Doran has an AOL email account that the suit asserted is “notoriously vulnerable” to hacking.

The hackers apparently learned when and how the couple were going to purchase the apartment and sent them emails impersonating as the seller to steal their money, according to the suit.