Mar 26, 2021 | Consumer Protection, Employment & Technology Archive
Personal Touch Holding Corp. Notifying Current And Former Employees And Patients Of A Cybersecurity Attack Possibly Affecting Personally Identifiable Information And Protected Health Information – Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. Class Action Data Breach Investigation
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is investigating potential class action claims on behalf of victims of a January 27, 2021 cybersecurity attack on the private cloud hosted by Personal Touch Holding Corp.’s (“PTHC”) managed service providers.
PTHC’s recently published Notice of Security Breach stated that the following information was involved in the cyberattack:
PTHC’s private cloud-stored business records of PTHC and its direct and indirect subsidiaries . . . where patients’ personally identifiable information and protected health information were contained. This information may include medical treatment information, insurance card, and health plan benefit numbers, medical record numbers, first and last name, address, telephone numbers, date of birth, Social Security number, and financial information, including check copies, credit card numbers, and bank account information.
Employee information may include first and last name, address, telephone numbers, date of birth, Social Security numbers (including dependent and spouse Social Security numbers), driver’s license number, passport numbers, birth certificates, background and credit reports, demographic information, usernames and passwords used at the Company, personal email addresses, fingerprints, insurance card and health and welfare plan benefit numbers, retirement benefits information, medical treatment information, check copies, and other financial information necessary for payroll.
PTHC’s “Notice of Security Breach” listed the following direct and indirect company subsidiaries:
PT Intermediate Holding, Inc.; Personal-Touch Home Care of W. Va. Inc.; PT Hospice of PA Inc.; Personal Touch Care of PA, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of Ohio, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of Baltimore, Inc.; PT Home Services of San Antonio, Inc.; Houston-Personal Touch Home Care, Inc.; PT Home Services of Dallas, Inc.; Houston-Personal Touch Home-Aides, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of Indiana, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of Greater Portsmouth, Inc.; Personal-Touch Home Care of N.J., Inc.; PT Management Services, Inc.; Personal-Touch Home Care of N.Y., Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of KY, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of S.E. Mass., Inc.; PTS of Westchester, Inc.; Personal-Touch Home Aides of New York, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of Westchester, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of Long Island, Inc.; Personal Touch Home-Aides, Inc. (PA); Personal Touch Home Care of VA, Inc.; Personal Touch Hospice of VA, Inc.; Personal Touch Home –Aides, Inc. (MA); Personal Touch Home Aides of VA, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care of Mass., Inc.; Personal Touch Home Aides of Baltimore, Inc.; Personal Touch Home Care IPA, Inc.
IF YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE A VICTIM OF PTHC’S DATA BREACH AND HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS ABOUT KEHOE LAW FIRM’S CLASS ACTION DATA BREACH INVESTIGATION OR POTENTIAL LEGAL CLAIMS, PLEASE CONTACT MICHAEL YARNOFF, ESQ., (215) 792-6676, EXT. 804, [email protected], [email protected].
Oct 29, 2020 | Consumer Protection, Employment & Technology Archive
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is making consumers aware that the Federal Trade Commission has issued the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2020. The FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry (“DNC Registry”) lets consumers choose not to receive most legal telemarketing calls. The data show that the number of active registrations on the DNC Registry increased by two million over the past year, while the total number of consumer complaints decreased for the third year in a row.
FY 2020 Registration & Complaint Data
According to the FTC’s Data Book, at the end of FY 2020, the DNC Registry contained 241.5 million actively registered phone numbers, up from 239.5 million at the end of FY 2019. The number of consumer complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls decreased, from 5.4 million in FY 2019 to nearly four million in FY 2020. Of those complaints, 71 percent were about robocalls, roughly the same percentage as last year, and 24 percent were about live telemarketing. In six percent of reports, the call type was not reported.
During the past fiscal year, the FTC continued to receive many consumer complaints about telemarketing robocalls, but the total number of complaints decreased significantly. In FY 2020, the Commission received 2.8 million complaints about robocalls, down from 3.79 million in FY 2019. For every month in the fiscal year, robocalls—defined under FTC regulations as calls delivering a prerecorded message—made up the majority of consumer complaints about DNC violations, with the most, 332,000, coming in September of this year.
FY 2020 Data Highlights
Imposters were the topic of the robocalls consumers reported the most, with more than 423,000 complaints received; however, this represents a decrease from FY 2019, when the FTC received approximately 493,000 such complaints. This decrease is representative of the decreasing number of consumer complaints overall in FY 2020, compared to the previous year. Warranties and protection plans comprised the second-most commonly reported topic, with consumers filing more than 237,000 robocall complaints.
Calls about supposed debt-reduction made up the third-most commonly reported topic, followed by complaints about medical and prescription issues, and computers and technical support.
Registration & Complaint Data by State
With respect to state data, New Hampshire continues to top the nation in active DNC registrations per capita (93,791). The states reporting the most complaints per 100,000 population changed in FY 2020: the top five states were Arizona (1,770 per 100k population), Virginia (1,668 per 100k population), Maryland (1,644 per 100k population), Delaware (1,608 per 100k population), and Colorado (1,504 per 100k population).
Finally, to make the information in the FY 2020 Data Book more accessible for the public, updated and interactive DNC data dashboard visualizations are available at ftc.gov/exploredata. The Data Book includes the following features:
The number of DNC complaints about robocalls versus live callers.
Information For Consumers
Information for consumers about the DNC Registry, company-specific DNC requests, and telemarketer caller ID requirements can be found on the FTC’s website, and consumers can sign up for the DNC Registry for free. Other information about robocalls and what consumers can do about them is also available. To report unwanted telemarketing calls, consumers can file a complaint at www.donotcall.gov or call (888) 382-1222.
Source: Federal Trade Commission – FTC.gov
Do You Believe You Are a Victim of Illegal Robocalls, Text Messages, “Junk” Faxes or Telemarketing Sales Calls?
If you have received illegal robocalls, text messages, “junk” faxes or telemarketing sales calls, you may be able to recover at least $500 for each illegal call, text or fax you received and, possibly, as much as $1,500 for each illegal call, text message or facsimile that was made either willfully or knowingly in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
To help evaluate your potential legal claims under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, please complete KLF’s confidential Robocall Questionnaire or, if you prefer to speak with an attorney, please complete the form above on the right, e-mail [email protected] or contact Michael Yarnoff, Esq., [email protected], (215) 792-6676, Ext. 804, for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your potential legal rights.
Oct 21, 2020 | Consumer Protection, Employment & Technology Archive
Porsche Panamera (2010-2016) and Porsche 911 (2009-2016) Owners/Lessees Encouraged To Contact Kehoe Law Firm, P.C.
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is investigating claims on behalf of owners of Porsche Panamera vehicles (Model Years 2010-2016) and Porsche 911 vehicles (Model Years 2009-2016) to determine whether Porsche manipulated vehicle emissions, thereby causing owners or lessees to overpay for their vehicles at the time of purchase or lease.
If you own or lease a Porsche Panamera (2010-2016) or Porsche 911 (2009-2016), you are encouraged to contact Kehoe Law Firm, P.C., Michael Yarnoff, Esq., (215) 792-6676, Ext. 804, [email protected], [email protected], to discuss your potential rights and legal claims.
Sep 14, 2020 | Consumer Protection, Employment & Technology Archive
Artech, LLC Discloses Security Incident Possibly Affecting Security of Personal Information – Unauthorized Actor Had Access to Certain Artech Systems
Artech, LLC (“Artech”) filed a “Notice of Data Event“ with the State of California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, which, among other things, stated that
[o]n January 8, 2020, Artech received a report of unusual activity relating to an employee’s Artech user account. Artech immediately began investigating this report and through that investigation identified ransomware on certain Artech systems. That same day Artech engaged a leading third-party forensic investigation firm to assess the security of its systems and to confirm the nature and scope of the incident. On January 15, 2020, the investigation determined that an unauthorized actor had access to certain Artech systems between January 5, 2020, and January 8, 2020. Artech undertook a comprehensive review of these systems and determined that some personal information was present in them at the time of the incident. Artech reviewed this information and its internal records to identify the individuals associated with this information and their contact information for purposes of providing notice. On or around June 25, 2020, we completed this review and determined that personal information relating to certain individuals was contained in one or more of the involved files. [Emphasis added.]
Artech also disclosed that “[t]he investigation determined that at the time of the incident the involved files may have contained information including name, Social Security number, medical information, health insurance information, financial information, payment card information, driver’s license/state identification number, government issued identification number, passport number, visa number, electronic/digital signature, username and password information.” [Emphasis added.]
According to hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com (“US Staffing Firm Artech Keeps Silent About Data Breach, Leaves Customers at Risk of Fraud for Eight Months”):
BleepingComputer reportedly became aware of the breach on January 11, when the REvil gang advertised 337MB of the stolen data on a website used to shame victims and coerce them into paying a ransom. Artech allegedly ignored the publication’s emails and only recently acknowledged the hack, leaving affected customers vulnerable to fraud and phishing attacks.
. . .
As noted by Databreaches.net, Artech first sent out breach notifications at the beginning of September, despite completing its investigation at the end of June. From early January to early September, Artech knowingly left customers at risk of fraud and ID theft. [Emphasis added.]
Have You Been Impacted by A Data Breach?
If so, please either contact Kehoe Law Firm, P.C., Michael Yarnoff, Esq., (215) 792-6676, Ext. 804, [email protected], complete the form on the right or e-mail [email protected] for a free, no-obligation case evaluation of your facts to determine whether your privacy rights have been violated and whether there is a basis for a data privacy class action.
Examples of the type of relief sought by data privacy class actions, include, but are not limited to, reimbursement of identity theft losses and of out-of-pocket costs paid by data breach victims for protective measures such as credit monitoring services, credit reports, and credit freezes; compensation for time spent responding to the breach; imposition of credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance, paid for by the defendant company; and improvements to the defendant company’s data security systems.
Data privacy class actions are brought on a contingent-fee basis; thus, plaintiffs and the class members do not pay out-of-pocket attorney’s fees or litigation costs. Subject to court approval, attorney’s fees and litigation costs are derived from the recovery obtained for the class.
Aug 19, 2020 | Consumer Protection, Employment & Technology Archive
FTC Sending Refund Checks Totaling More Than $700,000 To Small Business Owners Defrauded By Deceptive Robocalls
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is making consumers and small business owners aware that on August 18, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is mailing refunds totaling more than $700,000 to small business owners who were deceived by a robocall scheme.
According to the FTC, the defendants, operating as Pointbreak Media, Modern Spotlight, National Business Listings, and Modern Source Media, called small business owners, claimed to be acting on Google’s behalf, and threatened that Google would label their businesses “permanently closed” unless they spoke with a “Google specialist.”
The defendants’ telemarketers, according to the FTC, then told the small business owners that the defendants could “claim and verify” the business owners’ Google listing and ensure it would appear prominently on the search engine, for a one-time fee ranging from $300 to $700. The Court found that these claims were false.
The FTC is sending refunds to 4,467 small business owners with an average refund amount of $158.32. According to the FTC, those who receive checks should deposit or cash their checks within 60 days. If you were charged by Pointbreak Media or related defendants but did not file for a refund, the FTC recommends contacting the refund administrator, JND Legal Administration, (833) 928-2553. The FTC never requires consumers to pay money or provide information to cash refund checks. Recipients who have questions about this refund program should contact JND Legal Administration at the aforementioned number.
Source: Federal Trade Commission – FTC.gov
Aug 11, 2020 | Consumer Protection, Employment & Technology Archive
More Than $9.1 Million in Payments Being Sent To Customers Who Paid For And Defrauded By Deceptively Marketed “Amazing Wealth System” Workshop
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is making consumers aware that on August 11, 2020, the FTC announced that it is mailing checks and sending PayPal payments totaling more than $9.1 million to customers who paid for an “Amazing Wealth System” workshop.
According to the lawsuit brought by the FTC, the defendants, FBA Stores and related companies and individuals, falsely claimed their “Amazing Wealth System” would enable people to create a profitable online business selling products on Amazon. The defendants, however, had no affiliation with Amazon.com; buyers did not earn the advertised income; most consumers lost significant amounts of money; and many of the customers experienced problems with their Amazon stores, including losing their ability to sell on Amazon.com.
The FTC is sending checks to 13,348 customers with an average refund amount of $684.24. Those who receive checks should, according to the FTC, deposit or cash their checks within 60 days. People who paid for workshops from FBA Stores and related companies, but did not receive a refund, should contact the refund administrator, JND Legal Administration. The FTC never requires people to pay money or provide information to cash a refund check. Recipients who have questions about this refund program, according to the FTC, should contact the refund administrator, JND Legal Administration, at (888) 383-3027.
Source: Federal Trade Commission – FTC.gov
