Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 20:05:49 +0900, Michael Cash <buggeroff@fake.com>
> wrote:
> 
> 
>>I've heard that it is even cheaper to have stuff bulk-mailed in from
>>3rd world countries.
> 
> 
> That explains why my BYJW's Amex statement is sent from Austria! I
> also get internaational mail from my UK bank posted from Holland.

It's a quirk of the way that international mailing works. Only the 
originating office collects postage, not the terminating. The theory is 
that in the long run, letters from, say, Botswana to the US will 
generate an equal number of replies from the US to Botswana. Worked fine 
until bulk mailing came along. Now, a third-world country can attract 
bulk-mailers as a source of income generation, knowing full well that 
the vast majority of the mail is outbound. It's tolerated, but I seem to 
remember cases where countries stopped accepting truly abusive 
quantities of mail.

KWW