Herman Munster Becomes a Victim of Identity Theft

It seemed a nasty thing to do to an affable, if monster-like, character. But it appears someone stole the MasterCard number of Herman Munster, the dad on TV's "The Munsters."

No, the victim wasn't Fred Gwynne, the (late) actor who played Herman. The victim, if you can call it that, was the fictional Munster.

CardCops Inc., a Malibu Internet security company, said some clueless online thieves offered to sell Munster's personal data, which included his address on the show (1313 Mockingbird Lane) and his birth date (Aug. 15, 1964, suspiciously close to the date the series went on the air).

CardCops President Dan Clements, whose company monitors underground chat rooms for identity thefts, suspects that a practical joker posted the worthless data and it was snapped up by the crooks, who are based overseas.

"The [U.S.] culture really tripped them up," he said. "These guys don't watch TV Land."