Rightmove Ups Security for Agents and Encourages Them to Include Tenure Info

Rightmove will introduce a two-step log-in for its Rightmove Plus service in response to fraudsters who have bee attempting to gain access to agents' accounts and upload fake properties and steal leads.

The response comes after 6 agents were recently hacked according to Rightmove’s chief information security officer Tim Harding:

“Since the start of the year we know of six estate agents that had their own email inboxes compromised, giving a fraudster access to their online accounts. We’re adding two-factor authentication to areas where there is a risk of personal data being accessed or where your property listings could be altered.”

Rightmove Plus is the portal's agent tools platform where customers can gain insights from Rightmove data which stretches back as far as the 1990s as well as adjust their branch's own data feeds and analyse competitors. The latest spate of hackings is not the first time agents' data has been targetted through British portals, back in August 2020 Rightmove warned its customers of a phishing scam which had also affected Zoopla customers after several aegnts were targetted.

Agents 'encouraged' to include tenure agreements in listings

Today Rightmove has also announced that agents will be encouraged to provide full tenure details for all listings on the portal. Although a portal spokesperson said that around 70% of listings do already provide information on whether a property is freehold or leasehold the portal would like this figure to be at 100% soon.

From July, any listings on Rightmove that fail to include information on the tenure will have a line inserted into that display field by the portal encouraging property hunters to ask the agent for details. According to Rightmove's Legal and Compliance Director David Cox, the portal has had lots of feedback from users saying that they want to see the tenure information before viewing a property.

The move comes shortly after the announcement by the UK's Trading Standards authority of a period of consultation with the major portals on what information should be mandatory for all property listings in the country. After the consultation period comes to an end later this year, tenure information could become mandatory on all British property portals.