How to Securely & Anonymously Spend Money Online

Anonymity is very important to many internet users. By having your "e-identity" exposed online, you can be stuck with a number of unwanted issues, such as:

• Privacy invasion.
• Internet tracking.
• Exposure to being hacked.

However, what if we wanted to spend money anonymously? This is actually a hard task when it comes to the internet. To purchase something on the internet, you need to have a debit or credit card. Alternatively, you can use a PayPal account, but that also needs a debit or credit card to activate and use. In real life, we can use cash to purchase something anonymously.

When you purchase something with a credit or debit card, the serial number of the item you bought is stored by the bank for statements and customer purchase records. This means anyone who has access to that information knows what you are purchasing.

Also, if you are using PayPal, you are likely not safe. PayPal uses your real information, and the average person does not use safe practices. Lets say you bought something online, the person you purchased from will have your name and address already. What if your security question is "Mother's maiden name" or "First house"? This information is easy to obtain when your PayPal holds accurate information.

In today's Null Byte, I am going to show you how to get around the anonymous spending dilemma.

Requirements

• Money for a prepaid debit card (at least 10 dollars will cover cost and put money on the card)
• A PayPal account with real information and your bank account linked to it
• Another shipping address (Optional)

Preparation

To do any method of anonymous online spending, we first must purchase a prepaid debit card and activate it. They can be found at any gas station or supermarket.

• During activiation DO NOT enter your social security number.
• Pay for the card in cash.
• Do not register the card with any of your real information, such as address and name.

For added anonymity, you may want to use Tor to anonymize your traffic and spending accounts, not just who is spending the money.

Anonymous PayPal Method

To spend cash anonymously on the net in the easiest, most universal way would be to use PayPal. Let's go through the steps to do it. For this example, lets purchase something from eBay.

Spending

1. Open up your PayPal account with a fake name, address, etc. Make its information match the fake stuff that you enter when registering the debit card.
2. Create an eBay account with the same information. This will be your spending and receiving account.
3. Purchase something on eBay with your new PayPal account, and have it shipped to a friend's house under your fake name (to avoid the question being asked, packages are delivered according to address, not name). 

Receiving

1. Sell something on your fake PayPal account.
2. After you receive payment and mail the goods, have your real PayPal and eBay accounts post an ad for a piece of paper.
3. Sell the paper for the amount of money the goods were sold for to your fake account. This allows for a nice, natural-looking transfer. Anonymous.

You could also invest money into BTC, which is all anonymous.

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Photo by stevendepolo