A good homeowner's insurance policy will offer some kind of id-theft insurance. Quality varies according to company, but it was worth the extra few dollars on my yearly policy. (Literally a drop in a bucket of my yearly policy premium.) Perhaps I could save the change, but it seemed to be a low-investment but high-benefit possibility. Then again, I could be wrong. Call your company and inquire. . .

This is the new gimmick to sell stuff to the mopes who don't need it. Recently, for about two months, at 6:30 p.m., give or take a few minutes, the telephone rang and it was Discover Card on the caller ID. I would pick up the receiver, and nobody was there. I finally roused from my lethargy and called the number back to see if there was some type of emergency with my card after a couple of months.

I actually did get a human being, not in India, (I think) and guess what? I was on a computer call list to buy identity theft insurance. First of all, who else would want to be GenghisTheHun? I tried to explain this to the damsel on the other end, but she was a tough one. I finally wriggled out of it and got taken off the list.

Sounds like one scam devised to make you think you're protected from another scam to me...

Ok. Let me get this straight. First I give you my social security number, and then I give you money. Why don't we just cut to the chase and give you my automatic debit information. Oh. You need that too.

Funny. There's a guy in Nigeria asking for the same information, but at least he going to pay ME for it. So go pound sand....(now what did I do with that e-mail from Dr. Wanawana Stickittoya)

I'd be cautious about all those Nigerian Identity Theft Insurance scams out there...

"Meester 'Geet...We weel protected you identity for free! Pleeze send to us your Driver's License, Social Insurance Card and Birth Certificate and we weel protect you identity for free! You weel also receive $10,000,000 if you provide us with the combination to you liquor cabinet (and $5000.00 for processing of your Identity Theft Insurance papers."

Testimomials:

Mr. Smith from Paducah says, "No one has stolen my identity! All of my Jim Beam is gone, but my Wal*Mart gift card is safe! Highly recommended!"

Bernie Madoff says, "The security of my wife and children is intact. Send me some Slivovitz, please."

Seriously? Can you claim your premiums for Identity Theft Insurance as a loss?

Great idea ... never heard of it before.

This sounds like a good thing. I've never heard of ID theft insurance before, but it's at least, worth looking into. Having your identity stolen would have to be a living nightmare.