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Can you use a prepaid credit card?

by aosmith 12y ago

monort 12y ago
It seems you can get them anonymously: https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/1zjdob/you_can_get_an_anonymous_prepaid_debit_card_up_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/1zjdob/you_can_get_...
- weinzierl 12y ago
  I think this is about debit cards, probably not accepted by Hetzner.
weinzierl 12y ago
From their payments page [1]: The following credit cards are accepted through this payment facility: Visa, Master, Diners and Amex. I don't know if any of those companies offers prepaid credit cards. [1] http://www.hetzner.co.za/helpcentre/index.php/articles/content/category/payments/what_methods_are_ava_87/ http://www.hetzner.co.za/helpcentre/index.php/articles/conte...
- aosmith 12y ago
  I know Visa and Amex do. Recent darkweb busts have displayed a level of arrogance that is somewhat disturbing.
- pherocity_ 12y ago
  They all do (maybe not Diners, I didn't realize they were still a thing). I use them from time to time to get around the geofencing of purchases, or when I really don't trust the site.
- bnr 12y ago
  This page states they also support Direct Deposit, which means you can walk into any bank and deposit cash, no ID required.
  - privong 12y ago
    Seems like that should also open one up to an identifying attack of sorts. Find out when deposits were made (assuming there is more than one), grab all the security video from those times, and try to identify the person who is in all of those clips. Facial recognition software should get one the rest of the way. I imagine you would only need 3 or 4 deposit events to reliably identify someone?
  - tazjin 12y ago
    No, Direct Deposit in Germany usually refers to Giro[1] which is a payment between bank accounts. (Credit cards and even debit Visa/MasterCards are relatively uncommon in Germany) I've never seen an actual cash deposit payment while I lived there, though we do have them in Sweden for example. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giro
  - aosmith 12y ago
    In the US there's no option for this... Most banks will not allow you to deposit funds into another persons account.
    - umanwizard 12y ago
      This is false; I've done it several times with no issue.
  - psykovsky 12y ago
    Yeah, because banks have no cameras, you can go in wearing a mask and everything, just to remain anonymous while paying your hidden service server.
- driverdan 12y ago
  There are prepaid cards in almost every US grocery and convenience store, typically Mastercard and Visa. They don't require any ID to buy and have a fee around $5. Most can't be reloaded.
  - Shank 12y ago
    Most of those cards say that payment can only happen in the United States. I wonder if that applies to online services?
    - dobbsbob 12y ago
      You can exchange bitcoins on IRC for prepaid virtual visas and mastercards, paypal, any 3rd party payment you want. There's a few web services for exchanging coins to visa too, which I can't remember right now but are posted to bitcointalk forums. Of course if you were setting up an illegal hidden service payment would be the least of your worries. Moving it around every few weeks inside Russia like the inter-dimensional dark fortress in Krull to prevent long term traffic analysis, maintaining your site from a moving location everyday, and making sure you don't blow opsec giving away your identity is probably more difficult than finding creative methods to pay for hosting.

Can you use a prepaid credit card?

by aosmith 12y ago

Can you use a prepaid credit card?

It seems you can get them anonymously: https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/1zjdob/you_can_get_an_anonymous_prepaid_debit_card_up_to/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/1zjdob/you_can_get_...

weinzierl 12y ago
I think this is about debit cards, probably not accepted by Hetzner.

weinzierl 12y ago

From their payments page [1]: The following credit cards are accepted through this payment facility: Visa, Master, Diners and Amex. I don't know if any of those companies offers prepaid credit cards. [1] http://www.hetzner.co.za/helpcentre/index.php/articles/content/category/payments/what_methods_are_ava_87/ http://www.hetzner.co.za/helpcentre/index.php/articles/conte...

aosmith 12y ago
I know Visa and Amex do. Recent darkweb busts have displayed a level of arrogance that is somewhat disturbing.
pherocity_ 12y ago
They all do (maybe not Diners, I didn't realize they were still a thing). I use them from time to time to get around the geofencing of purchases, or when I really don't trust the site.
bnr 12y ago
This page states they also support Direct Deposit, which means you can walk into any bank and deposit cash, no ID required.
- privong 12y ago
  Seems like that should also open one up to an identifying attack of sorts. Find out when deposits were made (assuming there is more than one), grab all the security video from those times, and try to identify the person who is in all of those clips. Facial recognition software should get one the rest of the way. I imagine you would only need 3 or 4 deposit events to reliably identify someone?
- tazjin 12y ago
  No, Direct Deposit in Germany usually refers to Giro[1] which is a payment between bank accounts. (Credit cards and even debit Visa/MasterCards are relatively uncommon in Germany) I've never seen an actual cash deposit payment while I lived there, though we do have them in Sweden for example. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giro
- aosmith 12y ago
  In the US there's no option for this... Most banks will not allow you to deposit funds into another persons account.
  - umanwizard 12y ago
    This is false; I've done it several times with no issue.
- psykovsky 12y ago
  Yeah, because banks have no cameras, you can go in wearing a mask and everything, just to remain anonymous while paying your hidden service server.
driverdan 12y ago
There are prepaid cards in almost every US grocery and convenience store, typically Mastercard and Visa. They don't require any ID to buy and have a fee around $5. Most can't be reloaded.
- Shank 12y ago
  Most of those cards say that payment can only happen in the United States. I wonder if that applies to online services?
  - dobbsbob 12y ago
    You can exchange bitcoins on IRC for prepaid virtual visas and mastercards, paypal, any 3rd party payment you want. There's a few web services for exchanging coins to visa too, which I can't remember right now but are posted to bitcointalk forums. Of course if you were setting up an illegal hidden service payment would be the least of your worries. Moving it around every few weeks inside Russia like the inter-dimensional dark fortress in Krull to prevent long term traffic analysis, maintaining your site from a moving location everyday, and making sure you don't blow opsec giving away your identity is probably more difficult than finding creative methods to pay for hosting.