How much would you pay to protect yourself from identity theft?

A company called LifeLock sells this peace of mind for just $110 a year, and it backs up its service with a $1 million guarantee.

But can the company deliver? I decided to find out.

The pitch is mighty convincing. It involves Todd Davis, the CEO of LifeLock, giving out his social security number. Consumer groups say these ads give potential consumers a false sense of security.

"And I think it's misleading to imply to people that this service, the LifeLock service, is so good that you can be irresponsible, totally irresponsible and show your social security number all over the place," said Jeff Blyskal with Consumer Reports.

I met with Davis earlier this year. As expected, he had no problem sharing his social security number. I asked him to explain how he can prevent identity theft from happening.

"The primary front line of defense that we put in place is with fraud alerts that we place with the major credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, TransUnion - and renew those for you every 90 days," he said.

Fraud alerts are designed to reduce the chances someone will steal your ID and open an account in your name. But they're not perfect. That's where LifeLock's $1 million guarantee comes in.

"If the service fails for any reason, we actually go use our expertise, hire whoever we need to hire, cover all loses, all expenses up to $1 million dollars so the victim is not out time or money because of this fast-growing crime of identity theft," Davis said.

Cover all losses? That's not what LifeLock says on its Web site. The terms and conditions clearly state the company is only responsible for failure of its service. It will not pay you "for any loss you incur."

And here's one more thing the ads don't tell you. Davis himself was a victim of identity theft even after using the LifeLock service.

"A fraud alert does not make you bullet-proof to identity theft. So there was an individual who was able to go out in Fort Worth, Texas, get a $500 pay day loan because the issuing pay day loan company did not use one of the major credit bureaus," he said.

Keep in mind, LifeLock's guarantee wouldn't cover Davis in this case because he "unnecessarily" shared his social security number -- a violation of LifeLock policies.

One more thing I learned: at least eight lawsuits were filed against the company this year. The major claim is that LifeLock makes "false or misleading statements" about its services. Davis dismisses the legal action. He says he has 1.3 million happy customers and that anyone who has invoked the guarantee has been satisfied.