I realise that this question is subject to local trends (and I’m in the US), but I encourage people in other countries to submit their methods!

How do you accept packages/deliveries anonymously? Of course, there are mail redirection services, but a third party which corroborates with different parts of the chain can likely figure out your identity and what you have purchased/have incoming.

I haven’t been able to find a good solution to this yet, and I believe the new rule in the US is that the receivers identity must be reported to the government? This (or a variation of this, I don’t remember) is a recent event.

Thanks!

  • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
    36·
    7 months ago

    Depends on what you want delivered and your threat model:

    There are services that will buy stuff from Amazon have it delivered to a locker and they give you the code: https://anonshop.app/

    For mail one method has been to scout out a house, the have mail sent to it. Pick it up from the house. (Nobody home, before owners retrieve it, etc) - this is illegal and considered theft of mail

    You can pay someone money to receive a package then they can leave it at a dead drop

    You can get have someone else setup a mailbox for you, but give you the key. (Post box, or mailbox etc)

    You can use a virtual address service, and they receive the mail for you and scan it so you don’t need physical delivery.

    If your just going for general privacy any method is fine.

    If you want to accept packages from fans but not give out your home address and PO box works

    If you want to something that can get you in trouble you have to now account for whoever is going to get you into trouble and how much effort they will put into finding you, and what ‘rules’ they will follow.

    Trackers In a package - Faraday cage…

    Watching the mailbox to see who picks it up - don’t pick up consistently/counter surveillance

    Packages that explode, or poisoned - examine, scan, open in controlled environment.

    If your adversary is the mail system, do something else. They can scan all packed for patterns, check for chemicals, x-ray, density scan, etc. if your trying to hide from the network (mail system) while using them systematically your going to lose.

    • hushable@lemmy.world
      71·
      7 months ago

      For mail one method has been to scout out a house, the have mail sent to it. Pick it up from the house. (Nobody home, before owners retrieve it, etc) - this is illegal and considered theft of mail

      An empty plot might be a better idea, I had an acquittance who installed a mailbox in an empty plot on his neighbourhood and had stuff sent there.

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
        5·
        7 months ago

        I’ve heard one criticism of this method which is that mail carriers generally know which houses are vacant, so if they get a suspicious package going to such an address that may actually raise an alarm.

        For people ordering drugs for example people will recommend using USPS and a real person’s name/address, since the US postal service requires a warrant before inspecting a package, and the idea is you’re trying to hide in plain sight.

    • NoneYa@lemm.ee
      4·
      7 months ago

      Wondering if this is a thing I can add or not; someone confirm if this is another possibility:

      Rent a room at a hotel/motel and have the package delivered there for the day. Use cash and a fake name to book the room to keep up the anonymity.

      Not sure on the first part or the last part which could be separate issues.

  • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
    181·
    7 months ago

    I know I might not be relevant because I am not in the US (and in a big city), but I pretty much always order from online stores to the stores’ offices. Not only to not surrender my address, but also because usually they allow paying in cash upon reception (big Amazon-like aggregators are an exception but I usually avoid them), and this also does not cost extra unlike a delivery to your door.

  • csm10495@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    161·
    7 months ago

    I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most people can lookup most other people’s addresses in the US for free (or cheaply) on websites like whitepages.com. Even without that, if someone is very determined, they can visit the record office for the area on get public info on you, which also likely includes address.

    What’s the benefit of paying such a premium for an anonymous delivery if your address is likely already available?

    The only thing I can think of is if buying something sketchy, but I’m genuinely curious here.

    • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.worldOP
      22·
      7 months ago

      I didn’t know that. Thanks for bringing up this point.

      TBH my threat model was to keep the bigger companies from knowing where I live. I.e. if I shop from Amazon and I enter their site at home, they can make an estimate based on my profile, my browser and my IP, amongst other things. Then, it wouldn’t matter if I ordered to an Amazon locker since they know where I live anyway.

      Assuming I maintained a sanitized account and only accessed it from various locations using public WiFi, what could I do to prevent Amazon from knowing the locality I’m in, especially if it’s too big to get to a locker? Likely a P.O box but even government agencies are known to sell data to brokers. AFAIK there’s no way to pay anonymously for UPS or something, which means my identity is being tracked again.

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
        2·
        7 months ago

        One reason you’ll have difficulty finding something that can do this with total anonymity is that it overlaps a lot with what financial scammers want to do: get the money (traceable but it will take some time for the other side to catch on) and use it in a way that isn’t traceable.

      • csm10495@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        21·
        7 months ago

        It’s public knowledge. If they want to know where you personally live, they could look it up via the ways I previously mentioned.

        Heck, even if you never visit their sites, they could easily get big lists of names and addresses that may include you: all legally.

        Any attempt at fighting that is likely not to be fruitful. It’s basically security by obscurity, you’re trying to complicate it via one way, but they can just go another (more obvious) way if they wanted.

          • csm10495@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            21·
            7 months ago

            Ah. Then just buy a gift card in cash from CVS, etc. Then use it on an alternative account and delivered to one of those pickup boxes.

            Still sketch though lol.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
    6·
    7 months ago

    If what you want is available from Walmart, you can order online (for store pickup)using a prepaid debit card, whatever name you want, and whatever email account you want. You just need the confirmation number when you go to pick up.

    • Catsrules@lemmy.ml
      7·
      7 months ago

      That can keep your address secure from third parties but you do need your ID to open up a PO box. So it depends on what exactly your trying to keep secure.

    • Catsrules@lemmy.ml
      1·
      7 months ago

      That can keep your address secure from third parties but you do need your ID to open up a PO box. So it depends on what exactly your trying to keep secure.

  • potentiallynotfelix@lemmy.ml
    1·
    7 months ago

    I move cocaine across the border, so when I then supply it to dealers I will drone deliver from about 1km away. I have an ardupilot plane on standby circling in the air in case the guy runs off with the drugs so I can tail his car and a DJI drone which carries the cocaine itself(usually 1-2lbs). After the guy gets the drugs and the money is attached to the drone, I will start moving to as far as my drones can reach(5 miles or so) and then bring the DJI home because it’s the quickest to die. I’ll then land the plane and confirm the money is there. Overall the process takes about 1.5 hours and it’d be pretty anonymous

      • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
        1212·
        7 months ago

        I am on the privacy front. I don’t read this as privacy. I read this as evasion. Sure, tons of privacy arguments in the past were cast the same way, but I consider this valid criticism.

        • NoneYa@lemm.ee
          8·
          7 months ago

          I think you and the other are right that most of the people who would be searching for this type of answer would be involved in some crime as part of the process, but I can also think of situations where this can be used for legitimate reasons and most of these are outliers but still legitimate.

          The (current) top comment here mentions a few, one being if you’re famous and want to avoid, for example, an Amazon employee or a USPS employee knowing who you are and where you live based on the packages you receive. You may be trying to lay low from actual criminals and can’t rely on police because of corruption reasons. You may be a whistleblower and can’t rely on the government for protection but still need things and shipping is objectively much safer than physically leaving your house for your necessities or things needed for your operation. Or you could just be a paranoid person, which is okay in the sense of not breaking the law, just someone who values their privacy for irrational reasons, but nothing inherently illegal or even morally/ethically wrong.