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
The threat is that someone who learns the material facts of your accounts interactions around the internet would (correctly) recognize that it changed hands and if that person were some kind of cop they would have cause to investigate further, possibly uncovering other facts about you or your activities.
The point is that you’re breaking one of the cardinal rules: “keep your head down and your nose clean!”
Not gonna fight about it, just making it known.
In the case of buying Protonmail accounts, I don’t think it’s obvious that it changed hands, since again, it just looks like the account user started using Tor, nothing more. The use of Tor is suspicious, but so is any anonymous methods. For example, mailing cash to a email provider is also extremely suspicious, given how much effort one is going through to pay anonymously, and thus it may trigger a cop to immediately start reviewing security camera footage around the mailbox. Any type of anonymity is going to raise eyebrows, but buying accounts from the darknet is imo the safest and most secure method.
But being aware of the tradeoffs is important so thanks for sharing