Now many of us love online purchases. Dont have to deal with the annoying salesperson, you get what you want from where you want, and nothing is ever truly out of stock.

Unfortunately there are some downsides to online shopping. Since the only effective means is using paypal or credit cards you risk getting your information or accounts and cash stolen every time you make a purchase and often these risks persist way after your purchase has been completed such as when a site gets compromised. This has been the thinking that has kept me away from buying things online for a great deal of time, until the day of this writing when I figured out a way to complete online purchases with a greater degree of safety and an added element of anonymity. Im sure others are aware of this method but many do not, so I am here to share it for the benefit of those who dont know.

First of all you need to understand Visa gift cards. Im sure other gift cards work fine and dandy but currently I only know of Visa for sure. These gift cards come in the standard $25, $50, ect. types for purchase at your local walmart or whatever and can be refilled at will. Now these Visa gift cards allow you to register them online using your card number on front(like a regular credit card) and the three digit 'security code' number on the back next to the signature spot. You will then need to fill out your card's information. Heres the important part. You can put in WHATEVER information you want. Although recommended to keep your shipping address the same for cases like when HP requires the card and shipping address to be the same, many retail stores dont check this, so you can ship wherever you want.

The beauty of it comes down to three points: 1.)You can lie about your name, 2.)You control how much you put in, even if the site gets compromised the worst outcome is you lose one or two dollars and not your ENTIRE CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT :) while your personal info is safe, at most they get is an address which if you use an extra P.O Box doesnt give much to the malicious and 3.)You can ship anywhere without anyone knowing who it came from.

A few disclaimers are in order however: 1.)Lieing about your name IS a violation of U.S contract law thanks to misrepresentation. Luckily the only punishment would be that they could cancel your order but lets be realistic no company is going to care enough to do so(less you are trying to purchase restricted materials which I do not recommend). 2.)You still have to reveal the shipping address(duh). and 3.)I do not recommend using this as part of any criminal activities, because quite frankly the only use in crime this is going to give wouldnt protect against what actually gets people like carders caught, and will only help the prosecutor. The benefits of anonymous online purchasing via gift cards only truly benefits those you do not wish to hand out their name will-nilly and wish to lessen the risk of credit card identity theft.

Happy Shopping!

-Madf0x