Or, if you don't want to fight this battle in lieu of other tenants, _threaten_ to sue to either force the agency to reveal the name and address of the landlord, or ideally, have them put pressure on the landlord to return the security deposit.

I'm already suing over the security deposit - that's actually an open and shut case. In this case it's not clear that I actually suffered any personal damage so it's not immediately clear whether I have standing in a civil suit.

Class action, especially federal if any other tenant signed this agreement over the internet while moving to California.

> it's not immediately clear whether I have standing in a civil suit

You research took time and their illegal withholding robbed you of your money’s time value.

More pointedly, the people involved would rationally pay well to avoid even the complaint making it into a public filing.

> so

Did you ask a lawyer-- any lawyer-- before writing the sentence surrounding this word?

I assume the answer is yes. But I also think I remember reading a blog by you where you wasted hours attempting to reverse-engineer some hardware before finally sending it the help flag.

Returned deposit, or some civil-law settlement from wire-fraud forging (criminal law) documents is the goal?