**WARNING LETTER** from Alere

[ShezaGirlie]

Received this letter from ALERE today:

Dear "Shezagirlie",
We are writing to inform you of an incident that may have involved your personal information that occurred on September 23, 2012. A car belonging to an Alere Home Monitoring employee was burglarized. One of the items stolen from the car was the employee's laptop. While the laptop was password protected, it did contain a file with your personal health information. Some of the information included in this file was your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and diagnosis. A police report was filed, but so far the laptop has not been recovered.

Please note that we have no evidence that any of your information has been disclosed or misused as a result of this incident.

To help safeguard you from misuse of your personal information, we have arranged for you to receive identity protection from Experian Security Assistance at no cost to you. The Experian Security Assistance service will be valid for one (1) year from the date you register.

You must register with Experian Security Assistance to receive this complimentary identity protection service.
*Activate ProtectMyID Now in Three Easy Steps.
1. ENSURE: That you enroll by January 31, 2013.
2. VISIT the ProtectMyID Web Site: www.protectmyid.com/redeem or call 1-866-578-5412 to enroll.
3. PROVIDE Your Activation Code: E****TC**. (my deletion of code)

Once your ProtectMyID membership is activated, your credit report will be monitored daily for 50 leading indicators of identity theft. You'll receive timely Credit Alerts from ProtectMyId on any key changes in your credit report which could include new inquiries, new credit accounts, medical collections and changes to public records.

We sincerely regret that this occurred and want to assure you that we have implemented steps to prevent it from happening again. If you have further questions or concerns about this incident, you can contact us at 1-866-578-5412

Sincerely,
Sallie Kennedy
HIPAA Privacy Officer, Alere Home Monitoring
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, I definitely will be calling them tomorrow since I canceled my Alere INR Medicare scheme this past June. What was my information doing in a laptop. Why wasn't it purged? Why was the employee carrying around a laptop with all that information on it? Geez...

 

[AgilityDog]

Oh goody. Another reason to own my own machine and buy my strips outright.

 

[RobThatsMe]

Careful of the service they are offering. The company, "Experian" does not have good reviews.
I'm not sure if I will take them up on this offer.

http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Experian

That is what I found, so far.
Let me know if you find out differently...

Rob

 

[njean]

Received this letter from ALERE today:

Dear "Shezagirlie",
We are writing to inform you of an incident that may have involved your personal information that occurred on September 23, 2012. A car belonging to an Alere Home Monitoring employee was burglarized. One of the items stolen from the car was the employee's laptop. While the laptop was password protected, it did contain a file with your personal health information. Some of the information included in this file was your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and diagnosis. A police report was filed, but so far the laptop has not been recovered.

Please note that we have no evidence that any of your information has been disclosed or misused as a result of this incident.

To help safeguard you from misuse of your personal information, we have arranged for you to receive identity protection from Experian Security Assistance at no cost to you. The Experian Security Assistance service will be valid for one (1) year from the date you register.

You must register with Experian Security Assistance to receive this complimentary identity protection service.
*Activate ProtectMyID Now in Three Easy Steps.
1. ENSURE: That you enroll by January 31, 2013.
2. VISIT the ProtectMyID Web Site: www.protectmyid.com/redeem or call 1-866-578-5412 to enroll.
3. PROVIDE Your Activation Code: E****TC**. (my deletion of code)

Once your ProtectMyID membership is activated, your credit report will be monitored daily for 50 leading indicators of identity theft. You'll receive timely Credit Alerts from ProtectMyId on any key changes in your credit report which could include new inquiries, new credit accounts, medical collections and changes to public records.

We sincerely regret that this occurred and want to assure you that we have implemented steps to prevent it from happening again. If you have further questions or concerns about this incident, you can contact us at 1-866-578-5412

Sincerely,
Sallie Kennedy
HIPAA Privacy Officer, Alere Home Monitoring
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, I definitely will be calling them tomorrow since I canceled my Alere INR Medicare scheme this past June. What was my information doing in a laptop. Why wasn't it purged? Why was the employee carrying around a laptop with all that information on it? Geez...

I would be skeptical of this letter, Janie and not from Alere, but from Experian Security. I dealt with these thieves before and when I called them to cancel my account they were very rude! Funny that they weren't rude when they were looking for my business but when they wanted to charge $129.00 to my credit card account and I cancelled, they were NOT happy campers anymore!

So me thinks this is a scam by Experian, NOT Alere!

 

[njean]

I just got one of these letters in the mail too and I called Alere immediately. They told me that the letters are legit and they had contacted Experian to provide "free" identity protection to be paid by Alere for one year. However, after the year is up, Experian will most likely be charging if you want to continue this coverage. (Now how did I know that?? )

I told the Alere rep my experience with Experian and he said he would be passing that information on.....I just bet he will!

 

[Julian]

Freaking criminals. I swear the whole credit system is the devil. Anyway, maybe this is an opportunity to research other identity protection companies and pick the best one and subscribe for life. I have heard horror stories of people getting their identities stolen. Makes you wish you would of should have could of had protection...

 

[RobThatsMe]

Freaking criminals. I swear the whole credit system is the devil. Anyway, maybe this is an opportunity to research other identity protection companies and pick the best one and subscribe for life. I have heard horror stories of people getting their identities stolen. Makes you wish you would of should have could of had protection...

It amounts to nothing other than what it is, "Legalized Extortion".

 

[Guest]

You may want to think about putting a freeze on your credit. We did and have had no problems. Suze Norman and Clark Howard have recommended this also. Credit Freeze. You also have to initiate it with all three agencies, Experian, Transunion, and Equifax.

I have never done business with Alere and I received the letter. I call in my INR to my coumadin clinic who contracts with them so I guess that's how they got my info.

 

[Duff Man]

I just received the same letter today, and I don't think one year of credit monitoring is even CLOSE to enough. They should feel lucky that someone hasn't already started a class action lawsuit.


I just want you all to know that the information on that laptop's hard drive never goes away unless the drive is physically destroyed or "dubbed over" in a specialized manner.

 

[RobThatsMe]

They did mention that the computer was password protected, but I wonder if the docoments were also encrypted?

I agree Duff, our detailed information should not be on someone's laptop!
How stupid is that!! Stupid enough for a class action law suit I would think!

 

[carolinemc]

Shezagirlie, you must be care of these kind of e-mails. There are all kinds of cons out there that also will ask you foir personal information, or have a virus in its e-mail, waiting for you to open it. Check this out and do not give this company any personal information till it checks out with the BBB. Just be careful and be forwarned. Hugs for today.

 

[Sol]

I also received this letter.

I contacted Alere and requested a copy of the police report that was filed. The letter appears to be legitimate...at least the explanation of a stolen laptop and not a scam letter for a credit service. I am outraged that an employee had my personal data on a laptop that was taken away from the office. Why would they need my file on a portable device that could easily have been lost or stolen.

Duff Man I agree with you; Offering security services for one (1) year is ridiculous because the information is now accessible on this missing laptop forever. At a minimum Alere should take responsibility for offering the credit service for life. Does anyone know the procedures for initiating a class action law suit?