It's a commercial with a catchy tune and it's all over the Internet, but read the fine print. Your free credit report comes with strings attached. A new government rule hopes to help consumers avoid free credit reports that are anything but free.

“Freecreditreport.com, tell your dad, tell your friend, tell your mom…”

Those flashy ads may be singing a different tune soon as the Federal Trade Commission is making companies behind ads like these face the music. It's called the “free credit reports rule" and it aims to stop companies from luring in consumers like Kristopher Nieman.

He came to Six On Your Side in October after using Freecreditreport.com. He filled in his information on the site, including his credit card number. "It made sense to me since I was trying to look up my credit report that they require extra verification that it's me.”

Kristopher immediately began noticing unauthorized charges popping up on his account for a service called Triple Advantage. He's not alone. The Better Business Bureau shows more than 11,000 complaints filed against the company, many for unauthorized credit card charges.

The FTC hopes the new free credit reports rule will stop this practice. Here's how it works. Starting April 1st, all such Web sites must put a disclaimer at the top telling consumers they have a right to a free credit report at the government site, annualcreditreport.com. And it provides a link right to the site.

It must also state that annualcreditreport.com is the only authorized source under federal law. The new free credit reports rule will also include radio and television ads. The disclaimers won't start showing up on TV and radio until September 1st.

Freecreditreport.com already has the disclaimer at the top of its home page.