LebGeeks

ironman

Member

Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Hello guys,

My question to you is as follows:

Is there a way to buy something online without exposing the merchant name? For example if i want to buy a VPN subscription and i don't want that to appear in my Bank statement, is there a way to mask the merchant name? or replace it by another virtual name?

Thanks.

NuclearVision

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Don't think so.
Unless you use something like cashu, they give you a virtual card you can recharge, that if you figure out where to buy these cash u cards seen the current situation.

AVOlio

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Your best bet would be searching for a VPN provider that has another financial company do their purchase orders.

This is mostly applicable for private porn website subscriptions.
As most of them use a financial company as an intermediary to handle all the subscription purchases.

I've tried it once, Don't judge me damn it!!

xazbrat

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Your best bet would be searching for a VPN provider that has another financial company do their purchase orders.

This is mostly applicable for private porn website subscriptions.
As most of them use a financial company as an intermediary to handle all the subscription purchases.

I've tried it once, Don't judge me damn it!!

lol.

A lot of the poker sites are the same way.  You will never see a payment to Party Poker, but rather one of their dozen or so intermediaries.

nefe_lpmk

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Buy a prepaid visa card or BTC.

ironman

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Guys,

Do you think this is legit?

hxxps://prepaidify.com/prepaid-visa-card-50-usd

Last edited by ironman (April 16 2020)

TheIlluminative

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Guys,

Do you think this is legit?

hxxps://prepaidify.com/prepaid-visa-card-50-usd

Apparently, it's a scam! https://www.trustpilot.com/review/prepaidify.com

ironman

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Much appreciated... Thanks

I was about to buy a prepaid card from there...

nefe_lpmk

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Much appreciated... Thanks

I was about to buy a prepaid card from there...

Usually you can't buy pre-paid cards easily. so avoid any non-local advertisers.

ironman

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

To be honest the whole thing started with that:

I configured a Plex media server on the cloud, with a complete torrenting solution that downloads movies and transfers them to the Plex library. The whole system is automated.

After downloading a specific movie, i got an email from the Cloud vendor saying that they received a claim from Paramount pictures regarding a movie i downloaded, and they will take legal action unless i reply within 24 hours describing what happened....

It seems that the torrent client on the cloud used something called "public tracker" and this usually happens since i didn't configure the torrent client to use a VPN.

This changed my whole perspective regarding privacy, i always torrent from my home IP address without an issue.

This is why i am trying to buy a VPN subscription without even using my credit card and it seems that there is no way, especially with the dollar issue that we are currently facing.

kareem_nasser

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

To be honest the whole thing started with that:

I configured a Plex media server on the cloud, with a complete torrenting solution that downloads movies and transfers them to the Plex library. The whole system is automated.

After downloading a specific movie, i got an email from the Cloud vendor saying that they received a claim from Paramount pictures regarding a movie i downloaded, and they will take legal action unless i reply within 24 hours describing what happened....

It seems that the torrent client on the cloud used something called "public tracker" and this usually happens since i didn't configure the torrent client to use a VPN.

This changed my whole perspective regarding privacy, i always torrent from my home IP address without an issue.

This is why i am trying to buy a VPN subscription without even using my credit card and it seems that there is no way, especially with the dollar issue that we are currently facing.

Seems you were easy to catch because of the amount of traffic going to through your IP. They might have some kind of algorithm which tracks their intellectual properties and their respective traffic.

But why would you automate such a process, I mean we all know it is illegal?

ironman

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Well, its the same thing as torrenting a movie, copying it on a USB thumb drive and watching it on your television. The whole difference is that the download is performed on the cloud (high speed) and Plex has applications on all platforms (TV, IOS, Android...)

Why i did this? It was mainly a POC and a challenge to get 5 systems to communicate together in Docker with a Reverse Proxy and Encryption.

m0ei

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

You can buy bitcoins from a local vendor and then pay the VPN company in bitcoins. Many accept crypto as a payment option.

nuclearcat

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Are you citizen of some western country? It is unlikely you can be sued as Lebanese.
They might try to charge your payment method some damage fees, but unlikely will work as well (but dont keep too much money on card).

Most likely cloud provider had to comply with DMCA and they want to scare you, also they might block your account. Downloading illegal torrents is generally bad idea and might lead to all sort of troubles. And if you ran them on US company - it is plain stupid.
Also if you used some shady payment method and it will become financial crime, they will trace you if they really want to do so, especially as you are planning to use their service.

yasamoka

Member

Re: Anonymous Payment / Hidden Merchant Name

Read the terms of service of the cloud provider you are using. It's clear that what you're doing is against it. It's nothing like downloading pirated content locally - these providers are legally responsible to prevent the infringement of intellectual copyright in their hosting countries. They can and will terminate your account if you give them a headache.

Last edited by yasamoka (April 17 2020)