I feel like this is a hack that is rarely talked about. And it’s the most reliable method I’ve found for getting an email account that I can use for signing up to other websites.
Imagine you want to create a completely anonymous account on some website. Most websites require an email account to sign up. if you’re lucky you can use one of those a temporary email services, but many websites block those nowadays. They only accept trusted email providers like Gmail, Protonmail, etc. And trying to make an anonymous account on those providers is difficult. Even Protonmail, surprisingly. If you try to sign up for Protonmail using a VPN or Tor, they will ask for a phone number or a second email account. So now you have to get a phone number anonymously (very difficult), or get another email account anonymously, back to square one.
Darknet markets solve this problem. Pay a bit of Monero, and you get an account. Completely anonymous. Now I won’t pretend it’s easy. Even just signing up for a darknet market often requires learning how to PGP encrypt/decrypt messages. But it only takes an 30 min or so to figure it out and sign up, and it opens up a new world of tools to use for privacy. There are many other types of accounts that you can buy aside from Protonmail, and many other products in general that you can buy.
I don’t get why Protonmail doesn’t just accept anonymous crypto as an option during signup, but until they do this is honestly the most reliable option I’ve found. I really wish more websites just accepted crypto for account creation. It’s understandable that in order to prevent spam accounts, account creation has to cost something, and crypto allows it to cost something without costing your privacy.
Anyways, here’s a quick guide to get started. I’ll avoid direct links since I don’t know if those are allowed.
- install Tor Browser Bundle, and use it for the following steps
- search for websites like Daunt, Dread forums, and Tor Taxi. Darknet markets change all the time so use those websites to figure out which ones are currently active. Cross-check links across multiple websites to make sure they are trustworthy, since often scam websites will try to pose as legitimate ones
- look for markets that let you search for the product you’re interested in before signing up, to save you time
- some markets require you to load funds into the market and then pay using those funds. Avoid loading more than you need, since some markets have “rugpulled” before (aka taken everybody’s funds and disappeared. This is the risk of an anonymous market).
Edit: also if for some reason a seller doesn’t accept Monero, you can use a crypto swap. Basically you send the swap service some Monero, tell them what crypto to convert it to (like Bitcoin or Ethereum), and where to send it to. Many can be used anonymously, without signup
you can use certain temp mail providers for protons secondary email verification, money involvement makes it more insecure
I’ve never found one that worked, which ones do you use?
I’m fairly sure Protonmail does not accept this one for the secondary email check they use during signup
Just get a Tuta account. No recovery email or phone number required. Sometimes they will kill a new account, just wait a day or two before using it or buy a voucher from Proxysrore with Monero and upgrade.
I have had spotty success with Tuta in the past. Out of the 5-10 times I tried, maybe 2-3 succeeded. And I had to wait 1-2 day before I could find out whether or not it succeeded, and if it failed I’d have no idea why. I just found the process way too annoying, and I’m willing to pay a few bucks to save myself the trouble. And, last I remember, the voucher can only be used to upgrade an account, but the problem is creating an account in the first place
Man, if you really think some darknet service is going to be more reliable just because Protonmail wants a specific kind of fiat
what do you mean? Are you talking about how you can pay for Protonmail using cash? I haven’t found a way to anonymously send cash. Physical movement can be easily tracked via surveillance cameras
Can you elaborate on how to get get Monero and hide then transaction from BigData/Gov?
I’ve seen some of the basic steps but I imagine the Gov/Bank see me transfer money to a Monero.
They see that Monero account pay for ServiceX. They then see ServiceX coming from my IP (a VPN might precent this). Or they see ServiceX used by an account that is linked to me. Or they see a number of services paid for by the same Monero account.
Using a VPN is not always possible.
I’ve also seen machines that take cash but imagine these have CCTV to prevent theft and many link to me even harder.
I don’t quite remember since I bought it so long ago, but I think the easiest method was to simply buy some bitcoin or ethereum at an exchange (they usually don’t support monero), and then use a swap service to convert to monero. I also remember something about rinsing/washing your initial funds, by first sending them to another Monero wallet that you own? Sort of like a mixer, but since Monero transactions are mixed up by default, you can just send them to another wallet and the final wallet is now unlinked from you? To be honest I don’t even know if this step is necessary. Hopefully somebody else can pitch in here with more up-to-date tips.
As for your VPN concerns, if you can’t use a VPN all the time, reading online it seems like the official Monero GUI wallet supports Tor, though I haven’t tried it so I can’t really help here
Edit: in case you haven’t heard of Tails or Whonix, I’d also recommend looking into those if you care strongly about privacy. Be warned that they are fairly inconvenient to use though
I’ve recently changed dozens of accounts to use Mozilla email masks. Most websites accept them, and the ones that don’t I think twice if I actually need that service. I have Simple Login and 3 custom domains if I really want to, before I give out a personally identifiable name. I’ve only seen one service that was super strict and only allowed gmail, outlook/hotmail, and yahoo.
Good post, haven’t tried this as I haven’t felt the need but it’s good to know there is a market for this.
Man just go to gmail and make an email address. I have like 30. I have addresses for spam, doing financial stuff, signing up for irl service requests (plumbing or electrician or whatever), etc etc. it takes like 5 mins to setup forwarding and filters, so you don’t miss something you care about
The post is about creating accounts anonymously. I think you are talking about preventing the email recipient from knowing who you are. I am talking about preventing the email provider (Gmail, Protonmail) and the government (who can compel companies to track users) from knowing who you are.
This is an extreme threat model that takes a lot of effort, but one that some may find useful nonetheless
Can we just perfect strangers this and I create zendayagirl67@gmail and you create shielaandstu@hotmail, then we trade?
Am I being very naive?
Interesting idea. Honestly at first glance I thought this seemed ok, but it’s actually dangerous. Imagine if you initiated a trade with somebody and they turned out to be a fed. The fed now has the gmail account you created, and can just ask gmail who created the account. Now they have your identity, and they also know the hotmail account they gave you, so your identity is now linked to that email as well.
By definition, the only way to anonymously acquire an email account is to give zero identifying information about yourself, but by giving away an email account that you created non-anonymously, you are giving away identifying details.
I don’t give any PII when I create a new email address
Your IP is your PII
Same but with proton
