What may be the first-ever hijacking of an active real-estate listing online — a palatial mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Bel Air, Calif., — has led to a lawsuit seeking $60 million in damages against home-sale marketing company Zillow.
One or more hackers seized control of the mansion’s listing page on Zillow’s popular Zestimates site in February, causing it to display a series of bogus sales that were tens of millions of dollars below the $150 million asking price, according to the complaint filed in federal district court in Los Angeles. The net effect was to inflict financial damage on the seller by “corrupt[ing] the listing price dramatically,” according to the complaint, making it more difficult to obtain anywhere near the price the seller is seeking.
The newly constructed hilltop house is a knockout, even by Hollywood standards: 12 bedrooms, 21 baths, 38,000 square feet of interior space, 17,000 square feet of “entertainment decks,” three kitchens, five bars, fitness spa, four-lane bowling alley, basketball and tennis courts, wine cellars and an 85-foot “glass-tile infinity pool,” to cite just some of the amenities. It is owned by a limited liability company controlled by Los Angeles luxury builder Bruce Makowsky.
The hijacking occurred when someone using a Chinese IP address and a made-up U.S. phone number managed to successfully claim “ownership” of the mansion on Zillow’s Zestimates page. Zillow, which displays pages on 110 million American homes — properties listed for sale and off the market — offers a feature that allows owners to amend descriptions of their homes on the site. The feature is heavily used by legitimate owners to modify information posted about their house — numbers of bedrooms and baths, for example, or a recent remodeling that affects the property’s market value. To successfully make such a claim, owners must answer questions designed to verify their identity.
