VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits

Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by flumpcakes on Saturday December 13, 2025 @04:34PM (#46258314)

I also use Mullvad VPN exclusively for my VPN needs. The fact I can get 6 months of access with a scratch card bought from a store & my account is just a random integer number is an example of privacy by design: no email, no phone numbers, no credit cards. I don't even do anything illegal, I'd just rather have a (what I feel) trusted option when I want to browse the Internet anonymously.

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by illusive4080 on Saturday December 13, 2025 @04:53PM (#46258496)

Can you buy those in US stores?

I’ve been paying for Mullvad with Monero for years. Love it

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by phantom784 on Saturday December 13, 2025 @05:06PM (#46258610)

Amazon, but that kind of defeats the point.

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by buildbot on Saturday December 13, 2025 @05:53PM (#46259021)

Buy amazon gift card in cash, setup new account, ship scratch card to locker? (Idk if they’d let you do that).

I think you can still mail them cash?

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by phantom784 on Monday December 15, 2025 @07:19AM (#46273536)

Can an Amazon account be made anonymously? (I've never tried).

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by buildbot on Monday December 15, 2025 @10:12AM (#46275513)

I assume if all the inputs are anonymous you could? Like phone/email. Never tried either haha.

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by flumpcakes on Sunday December 14, 2025 @07:05AM (#46262485)

It doesn't defeat the point in my threat model. No one in the position to log my traffic knows who I am other than my source IP address (which is already enough to link it back to me anyway). So let's take Mullvad at their word that they don't log anything, what's the threat now?

Maybe Amazon are x-raying the card numbers before shipping them out to customers, but that would require Mullvad giving up the card number -> account number -> account number traffic logs. Not much of a threat there.

Maybe all amazon orders are funnelled somewhere and they correlate the fact I bought a VPN card with my home address, and then correlate my bandwidth into Mullvad IPs (gained from my ISP logs) with data leaving Mullvad but that's all very unlikely and very circumstantial.

I'm also not doing anything illegal so perhaps my threat model/level is lower than the 'average' VPN user.

Anyway, not to be a shill but honestly I am just completely won over with how Mullvad do business. I know that a VPN does not make you automatically 'private'/'anonymous' but just the way they do business makes me happy.

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by phantom784 on Monday December 15, 2025 @07:18AM (#46273530)

But then how is that more secure than just paying Mullvad directly? Either way, there's a record of "this person gave money to Mullvad".

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by flumpcakes on Saturday December 20, 2025 @10:11AM (#46336733)

Because the people who know who I am, and the people who know what I browse are different. If I paid directly to Mullvad they would know both.

The simple fact they go out of their way to buy their services in this way makes me believe them even more when they say they don't log user traffic, unlike other VPNs.

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Re:VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits by gspr on Saturday December 13, 2025 @05:21PM (#46258749)

You can even just randomly generate such an ID number, write it on a piece of paper and enclose it with cash in one of several currencies, and post it to them.

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