I know, fake names are a no-no.
But, what if you receive mail for past residence all the time, and this mail is NOT JUNK? If you get things like letters from the IRS and Social Security office, isn't it safe to assume that the mail is not being forwarded?
It's also pretty safe to assume that the mail carrier gives zero shits about what the name says, right? Especially if there is mail being delivered to about 8 different names.
So, if you only order small personal packages, only order domestically, use a trusted vendor, only order occasionally, and you have vetted your mail carrier to see how they respond to fake names, what is the big risk that I am missing?
Having my package forwarded away, and never seeing it again? I can live with that. I would prefer the peace of mind of NOT having my name on the package. It makes the whole "it's not mine" thing more difficult to disprove, right?
Hell, you could even test the theory out yourself by sending bags of sand to your address with other people's names to see if they arrive. Do this about a half dozen times, and you can be pretty damn sure that the real package will be delivered.
Obviously one thing you risk is that at anytime, the previous resident may fill out a forward mail card. Also, the mailman might realize at some point that the person no longer lives there and hold hte mail.
One thing to ask yourself, what does this actually buy you? Does it actually get your more plausible deniability? You already have that. So the main question that would need to be answered to make this worth it is would using another name stop a CD or a search warrant or whatever trouble were to befall you if you used this person's name? To me, it only increases risk. I'm sure the police are aware of this tactic and honestly don't beleive it buys much protection. IF say your package was intercepted, I assume they'd probably still execute a CD to see if you took delivery of it. And if you did, you actually might have a lot more problems b/c you opened someone else's mail. At least if the pack was in your name, you still have plausible deniability b/c hell, who WOULDN'T open a pack in their name??? BUT, if they find you opened up a pack in someone else's name, forget about plausible deniability, unless I guess you try to claim that you are nosy and decided to see if someone else's package had something worth stealing. Yeah, that won't work out too well.
So my thought is this is not safer than using your own name. It introduces risk in other areas. The only hope you could have is that if intercepted, the cops would try to track down the person who it was addressed to rather than the address. Who knows, maybe they would. but more than likely I think they'd do it at the address knowing that the previous tenant would have to be stupid to mail something to an old address.