I often hear from people who made some sort of mistake when purchasing spy phone software. Most result in a financial loss, but in some cases, it’s a bit more serious. I’ve decided to put together a quick list of the five most common spy phone mistakes to avoid.

 1) NO REFUND POLICY: Make sure you buy spy phone software only from a vendor that has a full money back guarantee. A legitimate spy phone company that is selling a product that works as advertised, should be confident enough to give you a full money back guarantee. Most of the companies selling Bluetooth mobile phone spy software do not offer refunds. Many of them have a strict zero refund policy, and a few of them will only offer in-store credit if you can prove the merchandise was defective.

 Do yourself a favor, don’t waste your money on these companies. Stick with a company that offers a solid refund. It’s impossible to test every possible variation of a cell phone. You have different applications that may cause a conflict with the software, OS versions, network issues related to your geographic location, etc. are just some of the many problems that could cause the spy phone software not to function as advertised. When this happens, and the support team of your spy phone vendor cannot get the product to work, it’s only fair that you get your money back in full.

 2) NOT VERIFYING SUPPORTED PHONE LIST: Do you know what type of phone they have? Is it supported or is it running a non supported and/or proprietary Operating System? This is a very common mistake people make when purchasing spy phone software. They either think the software must be installed on their phone versus the other phone, or they don’t take enough time to determine if their the other cell phone is compatible.

 It’s quite easy in most cases to determine if your the phone type is compatible. An iPhone and BlackBerry are easy to pick out. Where it gets a little bit more difficult is when they are using a cell phone which you are not sure is running an of the supported Operating Systems. Phones such as the Samsung SCH i760 or Motorola Q are a supported, but how would you know? Is the Motorola RAZR supported? The quick and easy way to identify if your their phone is supported is to go to the spy phone vendors website and look under ‘Supported Phones’ or ‘Compatible Phones’ and look to see if it's there.

 Now keep in mind that most of the websites are not updated frequently, so if you don’t see your the phone listed, run a quick check on Google for phone and add ’specifications’ to the Google search. Look for a review of the phone and try to find out if the phone uses either Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Android. If it does, then you are good to go. If after searching around on the web, you still cannot determine if your their cell phone is compatible, go to www.spyphoneforums.com and post a question if the phone is supported, and I’ll quickly check around for you. It might take a few days to get back to you, but I will definitely find out for you.

 3) ASSUMING YOU CAN ACCESS THE PHONE: Another common mistake people make is they rush out to purchase spy phone software without ever thinking about their ability to get physical access to the phone. Without physical access to the device, there is absolutely no way you are going to get spy phone software on the phone. Now lets take this one step further. Not only do you need physical access to the target phone, but you also need to make sure the phone is not protected with a PIN number.

In order to install spy phone software, you need to be able to access the cell phone’s browser, and point to a specific website. Without access to the phone, and a way to circumvent their PIN number, you will not be installing any type of spy software on their phone.

4) NOT INSTALLING IT ON A PHONE THEY OWN AND/OR NOT GETTING CONSENT: Spy phone software is designed for monitoring your children or employees on a smartphone you own or have proper consent to monitor. You should NOT attempt to spy on a cell phone you don't own, monitor your spouse, significant other or adult children with any spy software product without the consent and knowledge of such persons. Doing so may violate local, state, and federal laws in your country and you could be subject to civil or criminal penalties. If you are in doubt, consult your local attorney before using any type of spy software. Bottom line, don't try to every install this type of software on a phone you dont own, and especially don't think its ok to monitor your spouse or someone else without their knowledge. You could get into big trouble.

 5) CHOOSING THE WRONG PRODUCT: You need to find out what spy phone features you want, before you install the software. A common mistake I hear is that someone is happy with their results so far. They’ve installed the software and are satisfied with the results. However, now they want to get more, but do not know how to upgrade their software. The best way to avoid this problem is to first identify the features that are most important to you, then choose the product based on the features you want.