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Here is one reason (I can't read the OPs mind, of course).
Let's say I own patents, and I wish to take apart a competitor's product to do an engineering evaluation of it, looking for evidence of patent infringement. (Big technology companies do this all the time).
It is common for the purchase of a tech product to come with terms & conditions preventing me from doing so - for example, indemnifying the seller, distributor, & manfucturer against any patent-related litigation.
So I want to acquire the product without any legal paper trail that could be used against me in patent discussions.
I was thinking somewhat along these lines too. The OP knows the sellers so maybe he suspects their digital product uses some material/tech that they got from him. Maybe they used to work together.
Or, maybe it's a former spouse or soon to be ex and OP needs info for the divorce negotiations.
People's imaginations are running wild here. I'd guess it's business-related, and maybe the OP wants to purchase something from a competitor, anonymously.
I'm a business owner and have requested price quotes from my competitors, using a fake name and generic email address, as a way to find out market rates on certain products & services. I'm sure they've done it to me as well. I've had a few people come into my place of business and after they left I got the feeling I was being scoped out, and I probably was because I never heard from them again.
Both first names and both last names each have the same amount of characters, and the both start AND end with the same letter.
Dave Smith
Dane Souch
Something like that.
Not sure if that was necessary, but figuring there is some sort of algorithm, thought it couldn't hurt.
Thanks for all of the comments, including all of the nonsense
You may change your name, but you may have used the same address? Maybe shipping address could be different from billing address. They may still have a way to track you down.
You may change your name, but you may have used the same address? Maybe shipping address could be different from billing address. They may still have a way to track you down.
No - temporarily changed my billing address in my CC acct, just in case. Although, I have been told that the address does not show to the merchant.
Yes, it's pretty much that weird. People hiding their identity are as a general rule of thumb up to no good.
Prepaid gift card like Visa Vanilla would be the easiest since you're not really worried about actually being anonymous but just masking identity for whatever reason. Of course you still need to deal with the shipping part. Alternative would be just to have a friend buy it. If it's a kink thing, purveyors of kink really aren't in the business of kink shaming. At most they'll find it amusing and maybe bring it up in a private conversation but probably not.
No it is not weird at all. They are just being smart, and protecting themselves, by not giving their personal details to the internet. Which I have never understood why people do that. People seem to know that that is a bad idea, but just don't seem to be able to control themselves and do it anyway.
This is not the first time I have done this, but just to show you how easy it is to get personal information. For a while I have been watching a particular YouTube channel run by a young female. From watching her videos I knew for sure what state she lived in. She makes that known in her videos. I knew what her main hobby was. That's the subject of her YouTube channel. I had a pretty good idea what metropolitan area she lived in, from the locations of her videos. But she is just one of about 4 million residents of that area. I had a good idea of what her first name was. Some people who commented on her videos, called her by that. I had no idea where they got her name from. I didn't see it on any of her social media.
This woman seemed to be a pretty private person. Other than sharing her one hobby on YouTube, She didn't let out any other personal information, other then her general geographical location (which is mostly harmless information).
But recently she decided to promote an art business she was running at the end of one of her recent videos. I clicked on the link for it, and immediately saw her full name on the page and that she is a self-employed artist. 5 minutes later using Google I had her home address, her education history, and her employment history. Why do people put all that online? I just don't get it.
Right now I probably know enough about her to steal her identity, if I was interested in that type of thing. The next step would probably be to identify her family members and acquaintances, which shouldn't be too hard. Then slip by her house and try to steal her mail from either her mailbox or trash to get more personal data about her.
Keeping personal information about yourself as confidential as possible is just good common sense. Once someone has your name and address, they can get almost unlimited information about you, which puts you at risk of criminal activity. People should be demanding more privacy, but it doesn't seem to be a concern of most people these days. They are more than happy to put their personal details out on the internet and let anyone who wants to track them.
Also for anyone thinking about using gift cards for any illegal purposes, don't even think about it. The cards all have numbers on them which authorities can easily track to the place of purchase, and eventually to the buyer of the gift card.
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