Anonymous purchases is the practice of purchasing items without associating your identity with the purchase.
You should anonymously purchase any materials you plan to use for a sensitive project or action. This way:
- If an adversary finds the materials at the action site (e.g., an incendiary device with a delay that failed) or traces of the materials (e.g., traces of accelerant discovered by arson forensics) and discovers where the materials were purchased, they will not discover your identity.
- If an adversary obtains your bank records through the collaboration of your bank, they will not discover the purchase.
To anonymously purchase an item in a physical store:
- Make the purchase some time before you need to use the item (e.g. weeks or months before). This way, if an adversary finds the item and discovers where it was purchased, they will not be able to see you on recent CCTV footage of the store or the surrounding area.
- Make the purchase at a store that is not close to where you live.
- Go to the store using an anonymous mode of transportation (such as a bike), and do not bring a phone.
- Conduct anti-surveillance before going to the store.
- Use some level of anonymous dress to be less recognizable — a Covid mask, a hat, dedicated clothing.
- Pay in cash.
- Make sure your interaction with the cashier is not memorable.
- If you have to purchase several items, you can make the purchases in different stores, in different locations, at different times. This is especially important if you purchase items that would be suspicious to purchase together.
You can make digital anonymous purchases with cryptocurrencies. You should either acquire the cryptocurrencies anonymously, or sufficiently launder them before using them, which can be a hassle, but is possible with cryptocurrencies like Monero using Tails[1].
See Prisma for more details on physical anonymous purchases.
Techniques addressed by this mitigation
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Forensics | ||
| Arson | An adversary can sometimes identify accelerants and trace them back to a gas station brand, and from there to the identity of the person who purchased the accelerants. To mitigate this, you can purchase accelerants anonymously. | |
| Ballistics | An adversary can use ballistic forensics to trace back a firearm or bullet to a seller, and from there to the identity of the person who purchased the firearm or bullet. To mitigate this, you can purchase firearms and bullets anonymously, for example through connections to organized criminal networks or through fraud. | |
| Mass surveillance | ||
| Video surveillance | You can make anonymous purchases to prevent an adversary from identifying you from CCTV footage of physical stores. | |
| Service provider collaboration | If you need to purchase an item in a store, you can purchase it anonymously to make it harder for an adversary to use the collaboration of the store to link your identity to the item. | |