Tim, Tim and BronTim?

Mark Honeychurch - 2 October 2023

I was going to publish an article this week about another of my scam adventures - this time, a “job” I accepted where I was supposedly testing mobile apps and getting paid lots of money to do it. But, with contributions from occasional contributor Tim Atkin, new contributor Tim Price (who is a work colleague of mine, and a new member of our Society), and Bronwyn, I don’t dare make this week’s issue any longer than it already is! Rest assured, though, that you’ll be able to read about my scam soon (as well as another scam I took part in last week, where I was promised a payment of $100,000, and all I needed to do was pay them $1,000 first), and you can probably hear about it on our podcast as well.

This week, Tim Price has looked into the claims that VPN companies like to make about their services. Given how aggressively these companies advertise online these days, for those who listen to our podcast consider yourself lucky that we’ve not been hawking VPN adverts at you. Tim looks into whether the claims they make about safety, anonymity and more are accurate, and what actual legitimate uses a VPN might have for a home consumer.

Tim Atkin has written about Family First, and their sneaky tactic of hiding the real motivation behind their odious views. He makes some really interesting points about the evidence they use to support their position on topics ranging from abortion and euthanasia, to marijuana and pornography, and more, and how we might counter their misinformation.

Finally, Bronwyn has written a weird and wonderful article about another fake autism cure, where in her own words she “kept getting dragged down rabbit holes”. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster, but it ends in New Zealand with Bronwyn connecting some dots that I’d not noticed were connected, and even mentioning me in passing, for a sound bite I gave to Radio New Zealand.