The singing pirates of the FTC and your free credit reports

For those of you who can't get the freecreditreport.com jingle out of your head, the Federal Trade Commission has something for you to think about: there's only one place approved under federal law for you to get your free annual credit report.

The government-mandated place for those free credits reports is: AnnualCreditReport.com.

"Other sites require users to pay hidden fees or agree to additional services," the FTC said in a statement. "For example, some sites provide a free credit report if you enroll in a new service."

To let everybody know that, the FTC has launched an ad campaign that looks a whole lot like the ubiquitous freecreditreport.com spots. The government's jingles may not be quite as catchy, but they are pretty good spoofs of the originals.

The FTC's ads:

And the freecreditreport.com ads:

Freecreditreport.com does note on its web site that it is not part of the government's program. The site says this on the front page:

ConsumerInfo.com, Inc. and Freecreditreport.com are not affiliated with the annual free credit report program. Under a new Federal law, you have the right to receive a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies.