Hamptons-based Real Estate Company Sued For Alleged Listings Hacking

Compass, a newly opened real estate company in the Hamptons is facing charges for an alleged case of hacking listings of rival company Saunders and Associates, Priscila Korb of Patch reports.

A temporary restraining order has been issued on Compass and its several employees after the lawsuit was taken to the Centra Islip federal court under  judge Leonard Wexler.

According to 27east, those who were issued with TRO will have to "preserve the data taken and to cooperate with a forensic review of any phones, tablets and computers that may have been used during the breach."

Saunders and Associates indentified Meg Salem, who used to be their top-producing employee, and even earned $1.2 million in the previous year, who resigned in November to transfer to Compass along with Vanessa Bogan, Jesse Spooner, and marketing administrator Jessica Grainger-Rozzi, who are also part of the complaint.

Salem, Bogan and Spooner left Saunders on November 2, November 3 and November 17 respectively who according to the lawsuit two weeks after "used stolen login credentials, hacked into Saunders's password-protected system and copied more than 11,600 listings and associated confidential information," until the breach was busted on November 17 when one of the employees at Saunders found out that her logon credentials were used to hack into the system without her knowledge.

Saunders is seeking for monetary damages while Compass is refusing to accept the allegations.

"Instead of discussing the claim with Compass or Ms. Salem, Saunders rushed to court to file a temporary restraining order (TRO) in an apparent attempt to create a story in the press and chill any further agent departures," a company spokesman said in a statement. "Compass policy does not permit our agents to engage in any of the activities alleged in the suit and consequently did not object to the Saunders TRO hearing as it aligns with existing Company policy. Compass has no culpability in any of the alleged actions and will continue its focus on building the premier real estate company in the Hamptons."

This isn't the first time that Compass is involved in a legal battle since its launch in 2013. Just this November, a Compass employee who used to work for another firm was sued for allegedly violating non-compete agreement at the same time hitting at Compass for illegally "poaching competitors' employees," 27east reports. Last year, Corcoran and CitiHabitats also threw lawsuits at Compass for almost similar reasons, according to 27east.