Thread: Do you have a subscription to FWW magazine?

Originally Posted by woodpixel

... I bank with UBank for exactly this reason. One can open a virtual bank account. Its fee-free. It comes with a Mastercard debit card that cannot be overdrawn, ever¹. Each fortnight I put in only the amount for the upcoming fortnights costs (plus 10 cents fat )

If a problem is experienced with a vendor (say GoDaddy or HostGator, but not naming anyone) then the card is simply closed and a new one allocated. So, USA businesses which no longer have my business² (ahem, GoDaddy and HostGator) are utterly denied any further ill-gotten revenues which never seem to get resolved (Gasp! Surely not! ) ...

Thanls, WP, the big-four banks are so cumbersome.

I had a problem with a "non-authorised debit" - showed Westpac emails where I attempted to recover the funds and they immediately re-credited my credit card. Next month same "non-authorised debit" -they said they were unable to block the debit but reversed it immediately I complained. Same again next month. .... On the sixth month I went to complain and the smiling banker presented me with a new credit card that she had already had created, immediately reversed the transaction and cancelled the old card.

She said the banks process hundreds of reversals each month from the same scamsters. Why cannot they have a simple black list?

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

She said the banks process hundreds of reversals each month from the same scamsters. Why cannot they have a simple black list?

Oh, oh, oh.

Call me a cynic.

Well. Here is a fact. I was a CTO for a credit card processing company. An anonymous middle company in the whole thing. It was all about risk management and fees on a billion transactions a month.

There are a dozen businesses between that simple "Buy Now" transaction and your bank. Every one of them is clipping the ticket on the way through.

Now, being cynical, which I am known for, but I'd wager that these scammers process 100k transactions a month JUST to Au cards and a percentage of those are never picked up or queried... 3%...5%... its all fat.

Now, being EXTRA cynical (only because I've seen it, first hand, a BILLION times) but banks also, on the macro, make money out of fraud by charging interest to victims, usage fees, overbalance fees and chargeback fees.

Its within their interests. (or is that fee-trests?)

And. It. Keeps. Happening.... every single month.¹

But, I'm a cynic



¹ - Next time you're on the phone to them, be chummy. Ask if they've seen this before. I'd wager heavily they will say "you are my 10th call today for this".

Originally Posted by GraemeCook on 21 March

... FWW #294 - is still in the mail - "should arrive by end of March."

Egad! FWW #294 arrived today.

Just received the junk mail for Issue #296 - May/June 2022 - so it should be in the mail from (old) Jersey.

Let us hope that Taunton are starting to get their act together!

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

FWW #295 - March-April, 2022 Issue - arrived today, 17 days after their junk mail.

Hi Greame
Looks like whoever is dristributing FWW to australia is doing a whole lot better than Canada Post.
I received Issue #295 (March-April) on April 1, 11 days after you received your copy of the same issue.

Originally Posted by ian

Hi Greame
Looks like whoever is dristributing FWW to australia is doing a whole lot better than Canada Post. ...

Its sent from Jersey, Channel Islands by Royal Mail (aka British Post). Presume it goes to London and is then flown to Sydney or Melbourne? Dunno how it gets from US to CI.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

It's sent from Jersey, Channel Islands by Royal Mail (aka British Post). Presume it goes to London and is then flown to Sydney or Melbourne? Dunno how it gets from US to CI.

FWW will be flown as air cargo from the US to Heathrow, or Gatwick, and then almost certainly shipped by truck and ferry to the Channel Islands for posting to Australia.

Shipments delivered by Canada Post are trucked from the US to a place in Ontario (I no longr have the wrapper so can't be more specific) and then placed in the Canadian mail system. (Ontario is a lot like NSW -- >80% of the people live along the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie -- a narrow strip much like that between Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong.)

The story of FWW Magazine issue #294 (Jan-Feb 2022) starts at psot #91 above, and continues.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook on 22 March 2022

Egad! FWW #294 arrived today.

Today I received a second copy of FWW #294 which, rather than being in the usual grey plastic envelope from Jersey, Channel Islands and via Royal Mail, was resplendant in a brown paper envelope with a the return address given as DAI Post, 17 Capital Court, Braeside, Victoria 3195. It was dated 03/21/2022 (last month) and was forwarded by Parcel Max Express couriers. [Note: American dating convention used.]

All rather strange?

Originally Posted by GraemeCook on 9 April 2022

Just received the junk mail for Issue #296 - May/June 2022 - so it should be in the mail from (old) Jersey. ...

And it arrived today - 6 weeks in the mail! Seems an interesting issue, though.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

And it arrived today - 6 weeks in the mail! Seems an interesting issue, though.

There must have been a bulk mailing to Hobart, coz I got the same issue 3 days ago !

It looks as though the Royal Mail from Jersey in conjunction with AusPost to Tasmania was several days faster than the truck from the US printer to Windsor Ontario, followed by Canada Post to my place in Alberta.
My copy of issue #296 arrived in my mail box on Friday, May 20