Criminals used 79 dormant domains to impersonate a top real estate team

Real estate professionals spend thousands of dollars generating leads and building recognizable brands. But forgotten website domains can become an overlooked security risk — allowing criminals to impersonate agents and brokerages in emails that could put clients’ money and sensitive information at risk.Gary Ashton, founder of The Ashton Real Estate Group at REMAX Advantage in Nashville, Tennessee, discovered the problem after working with Alex Shakhov, founder of SH Consulting, a firm specializing in email deliverability, security and infrastructure.Ashton had accumulated roughly 400 domains over the years, including names intended for future expansion, marketing campaigns and brand protection.Many sat unused in his GoDaddy account, waiting for a possible future purpose. Shakhov, who had been helping Ashton improve email performance, decided to examine those dormant domains. Findings revealed a problem that Ashton had not known existed. “We spend all this money on generating leads, creating leads, trying to communicate with leads, but then we don’t spend any money on making sure we can actually deliver the message,” Ashton told HousingWire. “As far as I’m concerned, [the unused do...