First Class Simulations - Third Rate Business Practises?

[AllanL]

I have just noticed that I have received an email purporting to be on behalf of Firstclass-simulations ltd. and sent by sourcewise.ltd.

This has been sent to a little-used email address, which happens to be the same one I used to register on the avsim forum.

To add insult to spam, it includes the message," This email was sent on Behalf of First Class Simulations by SourceWise LTD. Your privacy is of utmost importance to us, if you wish to unsubscribe simply click ....and you will be removed from all future mailings."

If my privacy was of any importance to either the sh*t at SourceWise who sent this, or the owners of not so First Class Simulations, they would not have spammed me with the unwanted email.

Can anyone from FCS clarify the business link with SourceWise and comment on the harvesting of email accounts against the owners wishes?

Meanwhile the one FCS product that I made the mistake of buying has been consigned to the bin. Nor will they ever be getting any more business from me while they maintain the link with SourceWise.

[DaveB]

Hi Allan

I dunno about that mate but you've got me thinking. I got an email last week.. maybe the week before advertising Alderney for FSX which may have been from FCS. I don't think I downloaded the mail.. prefering to bin it at the server but I did think at the time, how did I get that email?? :think: I can't recall ever buying anything from them.. quite the opposite

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

The Asim hackers grabbed the Avsim email list and used it for spamming.

Garry

[JimCooper]

If you like soap operas then there are pages of threads on this incident over at the 'new' AVSIM forums.
Basically the 4 plot lines are
1. AVSIM get a new administrator
2. AVSIM's database is harvested and used to SPAM.
3. AVSIM sack administrator.
4. AVSIM is hacked and destroyed.
These are 4 separate and totally unrelated incidents .

Not trying to start a flame war as that is going on elsewhere but some of you might want to check it out???
Suggest that it's left there and not continued here!!

Feel free to delete this post!!

Regards

Jim

[DaveB]

Hi Jim..

If you mean the 'First Class Simulations' incident.. I can say hand on heart that AVSIM going down, being under new administration, being hacked or whatever has nothing to do with the spam I recieved as my email address at AVSIM hasn't been used for around 5 years and hasn't been active on any of my pc's for that length of time ;-) Now.. if Allnodes went down.. that would be a different matter!

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Paul K]

Allan, just out of interest, what was that one FCS product you bought ?

[AllanL]

I picked up the Hurricane in Game as the second in a 2 for £15 sale (how come they never have two that you really want at the same time), and still thought I'd been had.

The Robert Sanderson and Aeroplane Heaven freeware Hurricanes have far better panels and the visual models are better, and yes this berk already had them - there was one Hurricane model I didn't have so personal interest drew me into wasting the dosh.

Think along the lines of the freeware/crap payware VC10/Trident discussions that have appeared here.

Perhaps as a service to the nation we should have a "Freeware that's better than NSFCS products" post - until such time as they distance themselves from SourceWise. There again I wouldn't want CBF drawn into a flame war.

Personally I think Ted Cook's Wellington is better looking than theirs, their Phantom isn't even the right model for the RAF, and the contents of the Early Years package are all available in perfectly good quality from freeware authors on flightsim, but obviously not Av at present. Oh and anything they supply from other developers can be obtained from other sources in the UK at the same or lower prices.

Rant over, get the feeling I loath and detest self-righteous spammers and their associates? :000:

Wonder if we could get one of the Daily redtops to start a deport spammers campaign........

[DaveB]

Wonder if we could get one of the Daily redtops to start a deport spammers campaign........

Well mate.. as they're not a gender or ethnic/religious group, I see no good reason why this shouldn't happen! ;-) Wonder if they're covered by some EU Bill of Human Rights though :think: :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Vulcan_to_the_Sky!]

Sorry to keep going on about this but:

First Class Simulations are like Just Flight, they are PUBLISHERS, NOT Producers!

The items that they sell are made by other companies, and distibuted by them,

E.G the Eurofighter Typhoon they market is the AFS One,

Other items they sell include flight 1 and abacus products.

As to their business practices, that is another matter, but every time someone mentions FCS they slate the product, which is a bit like buying the PSS 777 and then slating Just Flight (even though in that case it was a good addon).

I apologise if I've angered anyone but as much as a companys bad practices shouldn't go unpunished, the issue here seems to be the emails and not the quality of their products. They make addons for train sim as well, or used to.

I have not used the address that was registered with Avsim for some time now and I suspect it will have been spammed as well.

A quick google of sourcewise points to a software development company in the U.K, but cant get much more info than that.

As to the matter, I hope it is sorted. And that Avsim makes a comeback..

Apologies in advance again,

James.

[DaveB]

Hi James..

I think we're all pretty much aware of who FCS are, what they do and what they don't do. The issue raised was them farming out (supposedly farming out) FCS customers data in the form of email addresses to a 3rd party for them to mailshot the customer database. If you're ok with your email address being passed on to another company without your prior knowledge, however legit this company may be, then okey doh. Others are not so pleased ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab: