before i dive into the world that is the DNM's I want to know full-heartedly that im 100% secure and anonymous.
I've been doing a bunch of research and so far I've come across a couple methods to stay secure while browsing the DNM's; TOR (I've used before and understand it), VPN ( Used to have one not anymore), TAILS ( researched into it, sort of have a understanding of it) and a Socks5 ( no clue what it is or how to use it :-P)
I want to be 100% untraceable and at the same time i don't want to set off any red flags because im using TOR ( I read that continuously using TOR does set off alerts for your ISP).
A questions i have is If im using TAILS do i need to run a VPN aswell? along with a Socks5?
Like most beginners im kinda overwhelmed by all the protection methods and how to use them in a applicable manner. If you have any guidance for me that would be great or if you could tell me the method you use that would be awesome too :-)
Hope to be in the swing of things soon
There's a lot more that goes into these things than I can fit in the length of this post but here goes.
VPN- very nice tool that allows your exit IP to be efficiently masked from your ISP. Your ISP will not be able to tell you are accessing the Tor network. Costs about $5 a month for a minimal connection. Nice to have, but unnecessary as a buyer.
Socks5 is basically a proxy, but not one that will be traceable like an http proxy. Mainly used for carding, not necessary for DNMs.
TAILS- acronym for The Amnesic Incognito Live System, this is a distribution of Linux that features top end security. It runs off of a USB stick. Very effective at leaving no trace of your activities on your PC. Full disk encryption (veracrypt is a good one) is a viable alternative, but windows OS is more prone to security threats like malware and keyloggers.
Tumbling- how to mask the origin of a BTC transaction. The goal is to precent LE from tracing where you purchased your BTC to the wallet on a DNM. Pretty over hyped, pretty much no LEO is going to spend their time combing through the blockchain trying to find one bit of evidence they can use against you. (unless you are a major top level distributor they are already building a case against)
Everything listed above is a bit overkill. No matter what kind of digital security measures you take, the weakest link in the whole equation will always be the postal system. You are about 1000x more likely to be caught by a package that is intercepted than by LE wasting their time trying to trace down somebody that purchases small amounts of drugs.
Even if you are purchasing half pounds of weed at a time, there was a total of 4,395,240 pounds of marijuana seized last year. You are not a big fish by any stretch of their imagination.
I admire your dedication to anonymity, but by far the best thing to protect yourself legally speaking would be to learn about plausible deniability. It is the one tactic that will save your ass should a package addressed to you get intercepted. NEVER talk to the police. Always ask a vendor if the package requires a signature. If it does not, NEVER sign for it.
Getting your physical OPSEC down will do a hell of a lot more for you than wearing a tinfoil hat.