JJ Luna

Mary, I used a bank debit card. I have LLC accounts I opened with a nominee under the LLC's tax ID, which I used the same nominee to get. I suggested it may be possible to use a prepaid debit card on Vumber for those who don't have and/or can't get nominee opened bank accounts but you've got to use a verifiable address when registering the card online before being able to use it online. Many secure shopping servers now can check the validity of addresses in order to prevent fraud. Whenever I've used a prepaid debit card and registered it for online use, I've always used a ghost address and a pseudonym I regularly use at that ghost address and I haven't had any problems using it on sites from Stamps.com to PayPal to Amazon. Vendors are getting hip to the "use a fake name and address" ploy because so many thieves try that and vendors are probably increasingly using the same address verification databases and/or software banks are starting to use to check for CMRA addresses vs. residential addresses. (Using a CMRA address is much easier if you're a business account client.) So, I'd first register the card for online purchases using a verifiable address and then try signing up for Vumber.

It appears it's becoming increasingly critical to (1) establish relationships with banks, using nominees, that allow you to pretty much achieve what you want and (2) establish a ghost address under a pseudonym, get it in the databases and use it to complete transactions and direct people trying to find you away from you. After over a year of doing both, including finding a bank contact in the corporate headquarters of my business bank whom I can call to get anything done I need (but who thinks I'm calling from another state than this one and/or constantly traveling because I got my nominee to send me a cell phone SIM card with that state's area code and bought a phone using my LLC account on which I call the woman!) and having CMRA/ghost addresses in a couple of states, I'm pretty privately achieving what I want and keeping my true name and the ghost address associated with it out of databases, except in the ways I want to be in them--to divert attention away from where I'm actually living. I do everything else using HTBI-based privacy techniques.

So, keep your eyes and ears out for nominee opportunities because has been key for me to do what I want. It's not easy to find people you trust but there ARE SOME trustworthy people out there. Others may have successfully achieved a similar 3.5 level privacy without a nominee and I hope they continue share how they have, too, but, for me, a nominee has been a critical to my success, as well as establishing relationships with businesses who "get" the privacy thing and go out of their way to respect mine to keep my business.