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It certainly appears that way. There's almost no content at http://www.igotmyidentitystolen.com/, just ads and links to Lifelock.com.

If it really is a front-site, then Lifelock's advertising campaign is even more aggressive than I thought! I already knew they advertise heavily on websites, but I've seen comments and reviews on many websites that read more like planted ads than actual reviews.

Case-in-point, some guy that left a nice long comment complaining about my views on fraud alerts who's website has another giant ad for Lifelock that's supposed to be a "review", but with all the ads, it's hard to believe that he's impartial.

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Another data breach, blah, blah, blah. Remember to freeze your credit and never have to worry about this stuff again.

Keep data safe? Pshaw.

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Georgetown U lost a hard drive full of personal data on students and staff. Of course, if they get a credit freeze, they won't have as much to worry about.

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Rather than preventing the problem, many companies are satisfied (and make tons of profit) by inventing new services to attack the symptoms rather than the problem.

Don't waste your time or money. Get a credit freeze and don't worry about all the snake oil.

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If you've been following this breach, the key problem here is two part:

1) TJX is the parent company of several other companies including TJ Maxx. Each of those companies shared data with TJX creating a massive database (and a single target for the hackers).

2) TJX (and others) shouldn't have stored the credit card data in the first place and when they did, they should have used better security.

Though they'll blame "clever hackers" for the breach, the fault instead lies squarely with TJX who's business practice of storing credit cards against people's will along with negligent use of outdated wireless encryption (WEP) first created a giant target and then then left a gaping hole for the bad guys to be able to go and get it.

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Here we go again. At least this time, it's only on the order of a few hundred thousand people.

Note: it's a little sad to have to say that.

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Due to the data breaches and high profile cases of laptops gone missing, people can easily forget that ID theft is easy to pull off without high technology skills.

[the study] found that, by and large, much of today's identity theft is still carried out using old-school methods, such as mail theft and dumpster diving. Thieves also used information from public records to piece together an individual identity, and many stole information from retail outlets like stores and gas stations.

Be sure to read my Identity theft/Identity protection guide for more information about preventing people from getting and using your data.

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Consumeraffairs is now reporting that the last credit reporting company, Experian, will now be offering credit freezes in all 50 states, just like the other two.

Credit freezes have always been the quickest, strongest, and most effective way to reduce identity theft. And while this is true:

All three credit bureaus had staunchly opposed credit freezes in the past, claiming the practice would harm consumers seeking credit and slow down industries that depend on instant access to credit.

If you've been reading how instant credit is destroying lives and burying people under mountains of debt they can't handle, this doesn't seem like a problem at all.

Anyway, they're not all in effect yet and I think that further legislation would be good to make sure that these companies don't worsen the deal over time, but it's a damn good start.

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Perhaps Equifax is seeing the same gate closing on them that Transunion did. They are the second of the three credit reporting companies to offer credit freeze protection.

The credit and financial industries have aggressively lobbied against credit freeze laws, claiming they would reduce the availability of credit and discourage shoppers from making big-ticket purchases due to the time spent unlocking a credit account.

And that's bad how? If people have to spend $10 or so to unlock credit and have to spend more time to do it, maybe they won't be so quick to get into credit card debt. Anyway, with so many states having already passed freeze laws, I guess the credit reporting companies are trying to preempt the states that haven't by offering it first.

Either way, it's good news for everyone. Hopefully, the states will still pass regulation requiring fast and easy access to unlocking credit and a lower fee as well, but it's a dang good start. Now let's see if Experian follows the other two.

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TransUnion becomes the first credit reporting company committed to providing U.S. consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the ability to freeze their credit files, should they feel that step is warranted.

The pricing is as follows:

-- Free to add, lift or remove for all ID theft victims -- $10 to add, lift or remove for non victims

Before, there were only certain states with freeze laws, but Transunion is making the move to allow freezes anywhere!?

That's a surprising move. With this, they've basically voluntarily shot themselves in the foot as far as selling credit monitoring services.

This is probably some kind of public relations "first strike", but as long as there aren't any scary drawbacks or fine print (and it doesn't appear there are any so far), this is awesome. Let's hope the others follow suit.