Personally, I think this hypothesis about the hounds getting advance notification is BS.
If you are serious about wanting to get a FTF, be willing to pay the price. Get a membership, notifications to phone, and then be ready to run out as soon as the phone goes off saying it's a cache.
If you aren't willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to get a FTF, then don't whine about not getting any, or getting enough. Only 1 team out of 32 won the super bowl last year. And it wasn't handed to them either. So don't expect the FTF hounds to hand you a freebie just so everyone can feel warm and fuzzy.