LifeLock has agreed to pay $11 million to the FTC, and $1 million to states, to settle charges that it overstated its benefits.

"Since 2006, LifeLock has promised in television and newspaper advertisements that it would protect customers from ID theft, but a complaint from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 35 state attorneys general said the company over-promised what benefits it could provide," writes Computerworld's Grant Gross. "The company's $10-a-month subscription service provided some benefits, but 'this was a fairly egregious case of deceptive advertising,' said Jon Leibowitz, the FTC's chairman. 'They promised protection, and they didn't deliver.'"

"LifeLock's service, focused on fraud alerts for new accounts set up in a customer's name, could not protect customers from several types of ID theft, including misuse of existing credit accounts, Leibowitz said," Gross writes.

Click here to read the Computerworld article.