Broker Keeping Our Deposit For Violation Of Agreement We Never Saw Or Signed

They asked for a $1000 deposit up front that would go to first month’s rent upon approval by landlord. While waiting on approval, one roommate’s financial situation was dramatically impacted and we were no longer able to move into the property. We explained we were unable to move forward, and we were informed that we would not be receiving our deposit due to a “violation of its terms”. We were then sent an example of a deposit agreement that no one in our party had seen before which stated the deposit would be forfeited in the event that “the interested party withdraws their interest”. As stated in the title, no one in our party saw or signed this agreement, or were informed of this forfeit term until now. The broker can’t even present us with our agreement (because it doesn’t exist), so he sent us an example of a signed agreement with the name of a random man, and different address. We are young adults and this was a huge mistake on our part. We realize it was dumb to send the money without any signed agreement at all, lesson learned there. My party knows we may not have any leverage, but I wanted to see if anyone had any insight on the matter. Is it truly lost? Location: New York