When you decide to download a ring tone for your cell phone, be a savvy purchaser of ringtones and read the fine print. Downloading a ringtone for your cell phone shouldn't be a bad experience, it should be a fun one.

First of all, make sure that "free" ringtone that you're downloading doesn't obligate you into a customer relationship with a site that will sneak monthly fees in on your bank or credit card account. The verbiage that tells you this little fact may be hidden on the side or way down at the bottom of the website - make sure you check out any page with ringtones completely to avoid being a victim of this common scam.

Another scam that is common is you are suddenly a member of a club. You might find you downloaded a "free" ringtone and suddenly you are a member of a club that charges anywhere from $5 to $25 a month for membership. Rarely can you cancel these memberships as easily as you joined. Normally, cancelling will involve a phone call. When you call, have a pen and paper handy and write down the date, time, phone number, name and extension of the person that you speak to that cancels your account. You may need this information later in case the membership charge creeps up on your bank account or credit card statement in the future.

Another scam that can come from a scam ringtone site is that you sign up for a dating service you never even knew existed. It happens very simply; you download a free ringtone and you never give a credit card number or other financial information so you figure there is no way you can get charged. However, your personal information including your cell phone number got sold to a large number of vendors and then you start getting solicitor calls on your cell phone. Then you start getting phony text messages and when you finally get fed up and answer with a texted back "Who the heck is this?".

Guess what? You just joined a dating service. This will usually involve a phone call to remove yourself from the account and for further security against phony messages; block text messages from people you don't know if your phone has that capability.

Those are just a few of the scams that are out there. Granted the majority of free ringtone sites are legitimate and above board. Make sure you're a victim of a scam site and always look for the fine print!