Posted by & filed under Accounting Information Systems, Accounting Principles, Auditing, Cost Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, International Accounting, Managerial Accounting.

On July 1, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused wireless carrier T-Mobile of adding bogus charges to customers’ accounts without their consent, in U.S. District Court.

Questions:
1. How long did T-Mobile use the practice of “cramming” on customer mobile phone bills and what is the estimated amount of the total fraudulent charges?
2. How does the length and amount of this fraudulent practice compare to the averages presented in the Association for Certified Fraud Examiner’s 2014 Report to the Nation?
3. Which company is considering a merger with T-Mobile? What amount of money is involved in this merger?
4. What is the FTC’s goal in this case? How do you think T-Mobile should record its fees collected from customers under unauthorized practices?
5. What types of measures is T-Mobile taking in order to distance itself from competitors? What types of costs do you think that T-Mobile must consider as part of this campaign?

Source:
Molina, B. and M. Snider. (2014). FTC: T-Mobile knowingly added bogus charges to bills. USA Today, July 1 (Retrievable online at http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/01/ftc-tmobile/11913151/)

T-Mobile