Free Government Cell Phones

Lifeline phone service provides free cell phones to America's financially disadvantaged

Menu
  • Home
  • Do You Qualify?
  • How to get one?
  • States
  • Providers
  • Minutes
  • FAQ
  • News
  • Cheap Plans
  • Earn Money

Sprint busted for Lifeline fraud, forced to pay $200 million penalty

January 19, 2021

The FCC loves to pay itself on the back for the work it does to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse in the Lifeline free government cell phone program. This generally consists of finding little old ladies with two government-subsidized cell phones or tracking down a household with multiple Lifeline accounts.

That’s all small potatoes compared to the billions of dollars worth of fraud they just uncovered at Sprint.

FierceWireless.com has the details:

The FCC on Wednesday announced that T-Mobile will pay a $200 million penalty to the U.S. Treasury to settle an investigation into Sprint’s misuse of the federal Lifeline program for collecting federal subsidies for inactive users. According to the FCC, the penalty is the largest ever fixed-amount settlement it has secured to resolve an investigation.

Sprint’s Lifeline issues at hand and the resulting investigation began last year as the company was still working to win merger approval with T-Mobile, and was first flagged by the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

The carrier had been claiming monthly subsidies under the Lifeline program for 885,000 subscribers, even though they were inactive and not using the service, violating the commission’s “non-usage” rule, an investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau found.

Our readers regularly leave comments in which they complain that they cannot get their service providers to cancel their service. Sometimes they want to switch companies, other times they no longer qualify for the Lifeline program, and sometimes they just plain don’t want to participate int the program for one reason or another. We usually tell them that there are a number of ways to end your service. (1) Contact your service provider’s customer service team to cancel your account. (2) Don’t use the Lifeline cell phone for 30 days at which point service should be automatically cancelled. And (3) Don’t re-certify that you are eligible when the anniversary of your enrollment comes around. Any of these actions (or lack of action) should automatically cancel a Lifeline account.

The government pays each Lifeline service provider $9.25 per month for each active customer. It’s a perverse system that encourages cheating and incentivized service providers to keep customers enrolled even when they no longer want nor need the service.

How bad was the fraud? FierceWireless.com calculated the damage:

Sprint delivers wireless Lifeline service to millions of households under the brand Assurance Wireless. At the start of the investigation, the FCC said the 885,000 inactive Lifeline subscribers Sprint was getting paid for represented 30% of the carrier’s total Lifeline base and a full 10% of the entire Lifeline program’s subscribers.

As part of the announcement today, the FCC said Sprint agreed to enter into a compliance plan to make sure it follows the commission’s Lifeline rules in the future.

… From the start Sprint said it was committed to reimbursing federal and state governments for any subsidy payments that were collected as part of the error.

And while the $200 million is a record penalty, according to the FCC, it’s a far cry from investment analysts’ estimates at New Street Research last fall that said in addition to reimbursements, Sprint could face fines totaling in “the low billions of dollars.”

Scam the government out of billions, pay a penalty of millions.

Is this a great country or what?

h/t: FierceWireless

Tagged as: FCC, Lifeline, Sprint

Want more news from Free Government Cell Phones?

Click here and we'll drop you a line when new articles are up.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments

  1. Chad A. Austin says

    January 21, 2021 at 7:26 pm

    They scammed me and the lifeline. I have had no phone. They sent a defective one and refuse to replace it without charging money. What do I do? I’m not paying for a new phone. They also treated me like some bum. I’m just struggling through the covid-19 issues. Clearly scamming for who knows how much. Sending phones valued at about 10 cents that will never work. How many people have they done this too. They misinform me with every email. I have it saved.

    Reply
    • Free Government Cell Phones says

      January 21, 2021 at 7:59 pm

      Have you spoken directly with customer service or dealt with them through email. If you’ve spoken to an agent and not gotten any help, call in again and ask to speak to a supervisor.

      Reply
  2. De says

    January 20, 2021 at 6:12 pm

    Why is my spring boost now selling me to a 3rd party ? They sell the signal. Is this legal??

    Reply
    • Free Government Cell Phones says

      January 20, 2021 at 8:59 pm

      Companies seem to swap customers and service regions all the time.

      Reply
Previous Post: 92-year old vet battles Assurance Wireless for one year to get his free government cell phone turned on again
Next Post: Leading industry analyst calls for universal broadband and free government cell phones for everyone who needs them

Just tell me how to get a Phone!

Confused? Getting a phone is actually very simple. Click here to begin, read every word, and then simply follow the instructions.

Sign up for our Free Newsletter

Click to learn more...

Search this site

More Information

  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Readers' Questions
  • Help
  • Contact
  • About Us

Recent Articles

Q Link F ups continue: Company makes it easy to access private customer info

Were our readers right? Are free government cell phones hacked before they’re activated?

Crisis in free government cell phone program: Will new demands kill off service providers?

WTF? Assist Wireless screws up, exposes tens of thousands of customer IDs

Number of free government cell phone customers drops by two million in last three years

Leading industry analyst calls for universal broadband and free government cell phones for everyone who needs them

92-year old vet battles Assurance Wireless for one year to get his free government cell phone turned on again

Man sues Safelink Wireless for cancelling his free government cell phone

Millionaires can get free government cell phones. Why can’t you?

Dropping like flies: AT&T ends Lifeline landline discounts, T-Mobile may be next

Latest Reader Comments

  • Free Government Cell Phones on How to file a Lifeline Service Complaint: “What in the hell is going on at Q Link. The number of unhappy leaving comments has become staggering” Apr 13, 11:10
  • Free Government Cell Phones on How to Report Lifeline Assistance Fraud, Abuse and Waste: “Get your own website and be just as compassionate as you want. We, on the other hand, will continue to…” Apr 13, 11:08
  • johnny wright on How to Report Lifeline Assistance Fraud, Abuse and Waste: “you really need to be sent to a seminar on how to conduct customer service… people that come here for…” Apr 13, 09:15
  • Lawrence Schultz on How to file a Lifeline Service Complaint: “Hi I have the same problem I put the new SIM card in my phone that they sent me now…” Apr 13, 09:05
  • Stu Pidassole on FCC rule change allows more than one free government cell phone per household: “I two cellpone have but no bueno service? Gianni h@ve one of your extra free ones too please! I know…” Apr 12, 19:15
  • Free Government Cell Phones on 10 Surprising Facts about Free Government Cell Phones: “We’re at a loss here, Joleen. Your comment sounds just like every other recent comment about Q Link. We have…” Apr 12, 15:07
  • Joleen Ja'-Sun on 10 Surprising Facts about Free Government Cell Phones: “I tried to get hold of q links for about 4 weeks now I’ve tried calling, I had tried email…” Apr 12, 14:20
  • Joleen Ja'-Sun on 10 Surprising Facts about Free Government Cell Phones: “I have Qlinks but have been trying to get customer service help for about a month now the hold times…” Apr 12, 14:15
  • Free Government Cell Phones on How to qualify for a free government cell phone if you live in a group home or shelter: “Unfortunately, Danielle, that has always been one of the primary rules of the Lifeline program.” Apr 10, 22:42
  • Danielle Frederick on How to qualify for a free government cell phone if you live in a group home or shelter: “My little girl is only 10.She needs to be able to have communication with me.Im disabled on ssa.I don’t understand…” Apr 10, 19:01
Copyright 2019 FreeGovernmentCellPhones.net. | Privacy Policy | Contact