WASHINGTON - The government's ignoring its own advice on preventing identity theft.

The Medicare agency and the Pentagon want at least 52 million Americans to carry their Social Security numbers in their wallets, contrary to warnings by the Federal Trade Commission.

At least 44 million Medicare insurance cards include the beneficiary's full Social Security number. The number also appears on 8 million Defense Department identity cards.

And the Internal Revenue Service still tells taxpayers to write their Social Security number on checks used to make payments, a potential problem for those using the mail.

All this contradicts advice from the Federal Trade Commission, the lead federal agency for deterring identity theft. *

-Associated Press