Cell Phone Ringtones: Don't Get Scammed

I was happy with the free ringtones that my cell phone came with, but eventually I became tired of all the included ring tones and decided that it would be nice to download something I really like.

I mean I've heard my friends' phones ringing with personalized tones, a different one for each and every friend that calls, but the cost of premium ringtones adds up pretty quickly. I decided I'd be supremely happy with just one new default ringtone if and only if I could find something I really liked.

That's when I thought of the artist I'd like to have as my ringtone. I decided that if I could even find a Skinny Puppy ringtone I would pay to download that. I thought it was quite unlikely that I'd be able to find a ring tone by this group amongst all the more pop culture songs that are hot right now.

But alas I was able to find not just spam websites with 'skinny puppy' links but a cell phone ring tone site that had samples and download links for three different Skinny Puppy songs.

I was so excited to find the ring tone I'd been in search of that I quickly click-clicked and was on my way to downloading the ring tone to my T-Mobile cell phone -or so I thought.

When I went to complete the final download portion I got an error page. After trying several more times with no luck I finally gave up. I resolutely decided I'd get my $2 back some other time and worst case scenario: i was just out $2.

Then I got my cell phone bill. Not only had I been charged for the ring tone that never worked, but there was a $10 recurring charge –set to occur each and every month. It turns out that in the fine print of the ringtone site I'd visited there is a clause stipulating that downloading the ringtone automatically subscribes the user to this ongoing service and charges.

The way they get away with this at all is by having you enter your cell number at the site. The site sends you a text message with a code word. Once you input the code word on the site you're then taken to the download page –at which point you've jumped through so many hoops you're less likely to read the tiny print.

Luckily T-Mobile was very understanding and I didn't have to pay the $10 fee and I never had to see that charge again either. Be wary of cell ringtone websites. If you can't find it at the provider's site then you probably don't want it. Even though T-Mobile was understanding, I still had to talk with them several times to verify that I'd done my best to contact the offending third party website. Heed my advice so you don't have to learn the same lesson.