Busted: F-R-E-E spells $14.95 a month

Well, the boom has dropped on those seafood-serving pirates and renaissance hipsters we love to hate. Freecreditreport.com's free ride courtesy of a comatose Bush Federal Trade Commission is over.

Huffpost covers some of the ruling requiring full and clear disclosure of the fact that signing up means you get a monthly suprise on the credit card you are asked to submit to verify your identity upon registering for the "free service." It's always been a smorgasbord of outrageous puffery. The ID theft protection they "provide" means you must pay attention to all your transactions, the raw data: it's your burden to spot irregularity. Yes, that is kinda like saying green tights make you a brave and great bowman like Robin Hood. It's a shame this sham marketing has originated with a hometown ad agency that should know better. (Disclosure: The Martin Agency wrote me few checks for copywriting back in the mid-90s.)

The news of the bogus nature of these things is hardly news: NYT had a story in April 2008, "The High Cost of Free Credit Report"