How does anonymous shipping work?

I've understood everything in the process of ordering and how it remains anonymous, but I'm still confused on how shipping remains anonymous. I searched around but surprisingly found little on how the process works.

My questions are: - What return addresses do vendors use? - Do they drop it off in a box or do they go up to a counter, show their face, and drop off the package? - If they do go up to a counter, isn't a red flag that they make so many shipments?

Why isn't this a dangerous scenario for the vendor: Say I, Bob, am an LE official, and order something from a black market. I then inform all USPS offices to put a flag on my account, such that if anyone attempts to send me a package at this particular address, stop them there at the post office and call the police.

What is wrong with my scenario?


Comments


[7 Points] nicecountryforoldmen:

Packages are dropped off at random boxes or depots, in multiple locations, at random times, so as to never set a pattern.

The scenario you're wondering about will not occur since what evidence do they have at that point of time that the parcel contains illegal goods? They will allow it into the system, inspect, and slowly build a case against the shipper and carry out CDs for customers.

[Smart vendors will use drops as return addresses with fake names.]


[6 Points] omapuppet:

Shipping lots of small packages is not at all suspicious. Lots of people, myself included, run home-based side businesses that sell small items online. It's not unusual for me to drop off 100 padded shipping envelopes every week.


[3 Points] lsd-LadyLove-lsd:

They blue box and don't use their real addresses nor names.


[2 Points] DD0420:

Like others have stated, vendors drop items at different boxes all around, even in different cities, in a single city alone there could be hundreds of boxes.

While the info of every package is assessed when sorted, and a computer could easily flag packages coming through, there are a number of things that would need to happen, first the post office would need to obtain a federal warrant to search the package in any way. This means there needs to be reasonable evidence to search a package, and even then, there's no way of linking a vendor to a package. (this applies to US domestic only, packages going over the border may be inspected but that doesn't mean they will be seized, and even if they are, the recipient of the package can't be charged, unless they sign a waiver they get in the mail admitting to owning the parcel.)

Also on all markets(that I know of) your address is deleted after the package is marked as shipped, and is stored encrypted when on the server (excluding any pgp you choose to use).


[1 Points] None:

In addition to what these two said, ship something 13oz or smaller and you can do it with first class stamps otherwise you can use other ways of concealing your identity.