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Musical terrorism?


Quatschmacher
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Just had a funny thing happen. I paid a deposit for an Industrial Radio MIDIBass at the end of December and the payment has still not cleared into the company’s account nearly two weeks later. I contacted my bank today to find out what was going on and it turns out that the intermediary bank (HSBC US) has held the payment as being suspicious. My reference was IRN-## which is my invoice number. I got asked if the payment was related to Iran and was asked a whole bunch of other security questions and asked for information about what the payment was for etc. 

Was tempted to say that I normally pay for my arms to rogue states using bitcoin!

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1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Banks 🙄. Don't get me started. My Dad manages the private estate where he lives. Gets money off each household for maintenance of the grounds, buildings, insurance etc etc. He's been doing it for a couple of decades and has always used Nat West. It's legit, registered company, all above board and Nat West have been almost completely silent throughout.

They wrote to him last year asking for various details above and beyond what they already had. Really detailed stuff about every person involved. He supplied it all in person. Handed it over to someone at the branch and they've lost the lot.

Account is now frozen with about £80k sitting in it. Apparently, they think my 87 year Dad is money laundering. He's going down there again today. I've told him if he doesn't get any joy to hand over the business card of his solicitor and tell them to expect a phone call. 

14 day written notice to bank then get thee hence directly to the ombudsman

 

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When I bought my first property the mortgage company went through my bank account in forensic detail and I got questioned about £14 per month DFS sofa payment and a £7 a month fee to be a member of a professional body. They never asked why my Vodafone bill was well over £150 in one month though... 

 

 

Nothing dodgy. I was on hols in the US while my girlfriend, now wife, was visiting family in Australia. Expensive phone calls and messages! 

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We laugh, but it's almost as daft and thoughtless as when protesters though US IRA pension funds were to do with the terrorist IRA.  Youd think people would realise that, a) a few letters in a reference number is hardly evidence of anything amiss, and b) if you were trying to buy fissile material you'd hardly be likely to make any reference to the rogue state for which you work in the reference number.

And don't get me started about money laundering.  I get all this crap when clients pay me for my work.  The regs are well intended but utterly stupid - they inconvenience normal, decent folk going about their daily lawful business while doing little to actually stop criminals from laundering money. This country is very good at kneejerk legislation and bureaucracy.

Edited by Bassfinger
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Just now, MacDaddy said:

The FBI once closed down Basschat (an earlier incarnation) because of terrorism.

True story.

i could just leave it there :) 

but apparently it was to do with the servers in the USA, which had been accessed by some wrong 'uns, so the FBI closed down the servers.

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dunno about musical terrorism but there's plenty of criminal records

 

 

 

I'll get me coat

and yes banks suck big time, no managers any more just box tickers. Generally tolerable as long as you remember they're simply a business out to screw you for as much as they can get away with as cost effectively as possible

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In the 80's I was working to develop a new computer system for a major UK credit bank. When specifying the requirements the user department's senior manager asked what we should do about Mr xxxxx. We said, "Pardon?" Apparently every couple of months Mr xxxxx turned up with a large suitcase full of cash, which the manager accepted and fed into the old computer system. How could they input the cash in the new system? They couldn't see the problem, even after we had explained that this was totally illegal!!

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Guys I can really recommend the book "Moneyland" for anyone interested in the bigger picture of offshore banking and what it's doing around the world...a great read!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moneyland-Thieves-Crooks-Rule-World/dp/1781257930/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=moneyland&qid=1579010870&sr=8-1

I feel bad posting a link to where to get it from one of the biggest tax dodging corps of all, but maybe you'll get it from your local bookstore..if you still have one!

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41 minutes ago, chris_b said:

In the 80's I was working to develop a new computer system for a major UK credit bank. When specifying the requirements the user department's senior manager asked what we should do about Mr xxxxx. We said, "Pardon?" Apparently every couple of months Mr xxxxx turned up with a large suitcase full of cash, which the manager accepted and fed into the old computer system. How could they input the cash in the new system? They couldn't see the problem, even after we had explained that this was totally illegal!!

My ex worked in a high street branch of a very well known bank in the late '80's/early '90's.  This was back in the days before banks had a legal obligation to give bad references for former employees who have been dismissed, or even suspected of anything dodgy, and she had lots of tales about branch managers taking "early retirement" after large amounts of money was found to be missing, because the banks didn't want the bad press that might come with sackings and prosecutions.  Armed with a neutral reference confirming their experience of managing people's accounts, they often reappeared at a different bank in a different town to start again.

Anyway, she told me that at her branch in a fairly busy bit of South London, they would regularly have visits from foreign nationals, typically straight off the plane from South American, who wanted to open an account in which to deposit their holdall (and in more than one case, a suitcase) full of US dollars.  They never had any papers beyond a passport, and rarely spoke English.  And because the branch managers got an annual bonus that was partly based on the amount of new accounts opened and the total level of money on deposit, they were very keen to be as welcoming as possible so that word might spread amongst the other South American travellers, even though the bank had a strict policy on not accepting anything that looked like it might come from the drugs trade.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I feel for you. Nat West in their infinite wisdom have unlocked the account my Dad manages until Feb 14th. This is to allow time for all the documentation (which they lost and don’t know where it is) to reach its destination. If that doesn’t happen, he’ll be back to square one. In a way, it’s almost worse as they’re kind of accepting that the account isn’t being used to launder money or they couldn’t justify unlocking it all, but if the paperwork doesn’t appear, everything will grind to a halt again 🙄

That does seem daft. I hope it gets resolved. 

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1 minute ago, Quatschmacher said:

I don’t follow. 

It may be a Dutch thing. I'll try and explain. Sorry for the wordiness. It's really too late for me to write posts.
During Franco's reign, we were flooded with tales about Spain and its men in power -  typically like:
Some official person somewhere revels in interpreting everything as unlawful or subversive etc., and then with great rigidity - which is both a personality trait and an acquired taste - won't give in.
In his mind it's a weakness to let people live their lives. Bullying them is good for the ego and good for the state.

Something vaguely along those lines.
At least where I lived, or in my circles, Spain was consistently used as the example of everything bad.

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9 hours ago, BassTractor said:

It may be a Dutch thing. I'll try and explain. Sorry for the wordiness. It's really too late for me to write posts.
During Franco's reign, we were flooded with tales about Spain and its men in power -  typically like:
Some official person somewhere revels in interpreting everything as unlawful or subversive etc., and then with great rigidity - which is both a personality trait and an acquired taste - won't give in.
In his mind it's a weakness to let people live their lives. Bullying them is good for the ego and good for the state.

Something vaguely along those lines.
At least where I lived, or in my circles, Spain was consistently used as the example of everything bad.

Ah, I see. 

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1 hour ago, milford59 said:

Can I ask why you chose the Industrial Radio MIDI bass ?  Did you also consider the MIDI bass made in Ireland by ROR Guitars - it looks good as well.

http://www.rorguitars.com

 

Yes, I was also in contact with Rob about his version and was considering that too. What swayed me were a few things:

IR is much longer established and further down the road with development. Steve Chick invented this technology.

IR now have P and PJ models and a PJ is the best fit for the normal bass sounds I use.

I’ve also had chance to play an IR bass so know the quality is good. There isn’t any way to try an ROR bass before buying.

I quite like the fact it’ll look like a normal bass. 

I really didn’t like the headstock of the ROR one. However it definitely had some things going for it such as the ability to plug and play and the joystick and pitch shift buttons on the body.

If I’m feeling super-flush, I might buy an ROR one too.

 

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I just wish both of them would either offer some more interesting body shapes or license the technology to luthiers who do.

I think that for every musician who welcomes the comfort of the familiar Strat/Tele/Jazz designs there are an equal number who want something more "out there" to go with the advanced capabilities these instruments bring.

I know for a fact that I couldn't consider something like this with a Jazz Bass shape because I just don't find them comfortable to play.

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