The “Lawful Interception Recovery Fee” many phone users are reportedly spotting on AT&T bills is giving rise to a bit of frustrating and just-like-those-government-bozos speculation… that the controversial NSA spying program has resulted in a charge tacked on to our cell phone bills. Have you ever in your life?

Across the web, the “Lawful Interception Recovery Fee” has been a topic of debate as citizens absorb the unpleasant knowledge that Uncle Sam is kind of like that weird drunkle that gets into the sauce and listens in on our phone calls and reads our Twitter feed. And saves it in a vault for 25 years to bring it out at a wedding someday. Ew.

The “Lawful Interception Recovery Fee” NSA spying speculation has been ping ponging around the internet all month — the conspiracymongers over at “Before It’s News” posted the above video with the following comment:

“Imagine the agroance [sic] of seeing a $0.23 charge on your phone bill and discovering that it’s a charge passed on to the consumer due to the NSA spying on you!”

It would be so infuriating, to be charged to have your own privacy violated, without your consent or approval. If it happened! Which, by the way, we suspect is not the case!

Luckily, our investigative buddies over at Snopes did their Snopes thing and got the scoop on the viral email warning — and in this day and age of Facebook sharing, here’s a quick PSA. Always check Snopes!

Snopes got another version of the “Lawful Interception Recovery Fee” NSA spying email, and it read:

“I was looking at my bill and didn’t know what this lawful interception charge was… I googled it… WIRE TAPPING!!! I called and they said it was a new fee for the [vost?] incurred by the government. I don’t have anything to hide so if they wanna tap my phone go ahead… but why should I have to pay for it??!!! This is ridiculous, please share this so we can get the word out there. Oh, and check your phone bills people!!”

Basically, the “Lawful Interception Recovery Fee” NSA spying yarn has hoax written all over it. Not only are there no other sightings of this alleged common charge, but the numbers on the bill don’t add up.

Finally, several outlets including Snopes have called AT&T about the “Lawful Interception Recovery Fee” NSA spying charge, and the company says that the bill line descriptor doesn’t exist.

Have you been seeing the “Lawful Interception Recovery Fee” bill posted on Facebook and sent via email?