How to Send Money Anonymously in Canada
Knowing how to anonymously send money is vital, especially if you often do many online transactions. Although most online companies promise to protect your data, some have reported database breaches that could lead to financial fraud.
Paying anonymously for goods and services keeps your information private and safe from hackers. This mitigates the risk of losses during funds transfers. You can buy items and pay for services using gift cards, Cash App, or cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.
A payment method can provide two types of anonymity: partial and total. We will explain how each works and state the different ways to send money anonymously in Canada.
That said, let’s get started.
Types of Anonymity
Before choosing a money transfer or payment method, you should understand its anonymity, whether partial anonymity or full anonymity.
Partial anonymity payment methods hide some of your details from the person sending or receiving money from you. Full anonymity will not show any of your details in the transaction.
How to Send Money Anonymously
Depending on the anonymity you want when transacting cash, you can choose payment or money transfer methods that offer partial or full anonymity.
Partial Anonymity Methods of Sending Money
If you are paying for online services or buying products from Amazon or eBay, you can partially hide your payment details for safety.
Some payment methods to use to avoid fraud are;
Virtual credit cards allow users to make payments with their real credit accounts without showing their credit card numbers. This protects the credit account if there is a data breach or financial fraud.
However, these cards offer partial animosity because the card service knows your identity. Your card is also linked to your bank account, so finding your information is easy. Besides, the virtual card service can see all your transactions.
Nevertheless, using virtual credit cards has advantages. For example, you can hide your information from the seller, and some people use burner cards that expire after one transaction. Virtual credit cards also enable you to set a spending limit to prevent unauthorized payments from fraudsters.
You can quickly close the virtual card if you suspect someone has compromised your data. Although these cards are safe, you can only use them online or in places that accept contactless payments.
Another way to anonymously make payments is using gift cards. People use gift cards as credit or debit cards, although these are different.
A credit card is different from a gift card because it allows you to borrow money from a bank as you shop, which you will pay later. Gift cards differ from debit cards because they are not linked to your bank account.
Prepaid gift cards have a certain amount of money loaded onto them, and you can buy them from supermarkets, petro stations, and online stores. The seller won’t know who you are when you buy the cards online or in person. Similarly, when using a gift card, you don’t require an ID number when paying for online products and services.
When learning how to send money anonymously in Canada, you will get a suggestion to use the Cash App. It is a mobile payment service that you can use to send and receive money anonymously.
The users have a username that the app finds enough to send and receive money. The app is also easy to use. However, don’t use your real name as the username.
Although Cash App won’t send your information to the sender or receiver, it knows you. This is because you transfer the money from a bank account into the app, meaning they can see your details from there.
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Cryptocurrency Transactions
A common anonymous money transfer method is the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However, this money transfer method does not provide full anonymity because the transactions are recorded in a public ledger.
Nonetheless, there is no use of personal information in the transactions. Use cryptocurrency prepaid cards if you don’t want to transact directly from your crypto wallet. They can be physical or virtual, and you need the card number to do your cryptocurrency transactions.
PayPal is a semi-anonymous payment method you can use to purchase items online. However, you must have a registered payment card or bank account to transact on the platform.
When you send or receive money, the person on the other side will see your name or the mail address. To ensure you are completely anonymous, you can use a fake name on PayPal and load it with a virtual credit card.
Google Pay is an online payment service that allows people to pay for online items and services. Its integration with other apps makes it flexible and easy to use. It works like PayPal, as you can create an email and connect it to a virtual credit card.
Google Pay does not require any fees to use debit cards or bank transfers, making it a cheap payment service. You can also use this payment service to secure your banking information when making purchases and transactions.
Full Anonymity Methods of Sending Money
Achieving full anonymity is challenging, a reason most money transfer methods are partially anonymous. If you want to hide your details completely, try these transaction methods;
The surest way of a complete anonymity transaction is using cash. Your only business is walking into a shop with notes or coins and using them to pay for items. Your name, address, or even nickname won’t appear anywhere in that transaction.
However, using cash to transact has many geographical limits. Paying for online items with cash is impossible unless you have other alternatives like Wire transfers.
Most buyers don’t prefer wire transactions because of the fees involved and are prone to online scams and fraud. Cash is also a delicate mode of money transfer because once you lose a note, you can hardly find it.
Prepaid gift cards, prepaid debit, and prepaid credit cards fall under partially anonymous payment methods but can be made fully anonymous. To be completely anonymous, you must buy the prepaid gift card with cash. You can get them at a department store, supermarket, or furniture store.
You don’t need an ID or email address to buy the card in cash, leaving no details behind. However, to be safer, you can first buy a small prepaid gift card to see if the seller will ask for your details.
Paysafecard is an anonymous payment method because if you buy the card with cash, you won’t leave any details. You can buy from vendors in many countries and make payments to other sellers.
You will use the 16-digit pin on your Paysafecard to make online purchases. The cards are available in various denominations like $10, $25, and $50, and you can purchase as high as $100.
However, most sellers that accept Paysafecard are online games and gambling parlors. A few vendors also sell Paysafecard, so getting one might be challenging.
Final Words
Although staying completely anonymous when transacting online is hard, there are some tips on how to anonymously send money. Try cryptocurrency, cash, and other transaction methods like Google Pay. Most importantly, ensure that the money transfer method is secure and reliable.