Ringtones are cool, and that’s a fact. Being able to put your favorite songs as the sound that your phone makes every time you get a call, text or message is a great way to personalize, and just have fun with your mobile device. However, getting those ringtones is usually expensive, and typically you can end up paying in excess of $3 for just the one 30 second clip of a song. That’s more than you would pay for the whole song on a provider like iTunes, where you can get every note for a dollar. This is why so many people turn to free cell phone ringtones providers, but you have to be careful about what they have to offer.
Something that you’re going to find with almost any type of ringtone provider, is that it’s going to cost you in some way, shape or form. If you’re not paying up front, you have to ask yourself what are they getting in return for you downloading the song, because no company is going to offer things like these totally for free. That’s why you have to know the most common types of ringtone scams, so that you can avoid them. There are a lot of different types of scams out there, so you’re going to have to be careful.
Here are 5 of the most common, so that you can carefully avoid becoming a victim:
1) Free ringtones websites.
This is one of the most common resources for hackers, as well as other scam artists, so that they can put illegal software on your phone. This can cause irreparable damage, like your phone software being completely destroyed. Or it can even make it so that your phone gives up all of your personal information to the person that made the virus. That’s not something you want, and it’s really not worth the risk just to get 30 seconds of a song you want to use on your phone.
2) Don’t give in to the cell phone ringtones commercials.
If you’ve watched television in the last five years, chances are you’ve seen a cell phone commercial of some sort, guaranteeing you downloadable content. But what they really don’t advertise, is the fact that once you text them to get content, you’re going to end up paying $10 or more a month for using the service. That’s in the fine print on the ad, and most people don’t discover this until they’ve actually been charged. So it’s best to just avoid the hassle, and not sign up for any such program.
3) Avoid peer to peer sharing sites.
Getting free cell phone ringtones from here can be bad for a variety of reasons, but the most important include the fact that it’s illegal. Any ringtones you download here can be subject to copyright laws, and it’s a fact that record companies spend millions to monitor illegal download theft, so don’t be surprised if you get a notice from a company sitting the DMCA or Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Plus this is also an arena where viruses are extremely common, because you never know where your files are actually coming from.
4) Read the fine print and privacy policy of every company.
There are companies out there that will provide you with a selection of AT&T and Verizon cell phone ringtones totally free, but there is still a degree of a tradeoff. You’ll find that when you sign up to these services, you’re having to enter in a ton of personal information. That’s because usually they gather and then sell off your personal information, in order to make money back for how much the cost of your ringtones totaled. You have to read the fine print of the digital contract you sign to make sure that your information will not be used.
5) Avoid subscription scams you can control.
Finally, some services will offer a limit of free cell phone ringtones, but will try and get you to sign up for a subscription service as well. Typically the only way to avoid this is to cancel the free trial period within the time allotted, or to uncheck a box that says you will subscribe. Either way, you have to be careful, and make sure that you comply with whatever it is that you’ll need to do, to avoid being charged in the end.