Buying things with a US ip address.

[GenericBox]

So first off I know this has been covered indirectly, but I am not sure how to apply this for my issue with enough confidence, mainly because it involves passwords and credit card numbers.

So basically, a website where I want to buy a video game from blocks Australian IP addresses. So I figure I can get a proxy to go around this.

But the point being I will need to enter my password details and then credit card number, are proxy services safe to do this? And as I'm willing to pay for a fast, secure service - does anyone recommend any?

The game I want to purchase is a digital download version, does anyone know if they generally email the product key? or do I actually have to download the game client. (I already have the game installed thanks to a pre-order early access bonus).



So : Proxy servers or the like to change my IP address to the US.. Safe, and can you recommend a service? (happy to pay).

[simonecuttlefish]

It's a very good idea to get advice on a reliable/trustworthy service. I can't remember the name of the one we used for a while, but I'll post it up tonight. We got an encrypted VPN tunnel for a while so we could switch between UK and US services and watch HULU and BBC online here in Aus. As the end point of the tunnel is in those respective countries, it appears as though you are in those countries. Every now and then the services would block those IP addresses, but a new one would become available real quick.

[davo]

I would not enter credit card details into any proxy service myself.

[GenericBox]

So would there be any way you would recommend buying something around an country IP block?

[Secme]

The game site you are using probably uses SSL (https, there should be a little lock and you can look at the certificate info), and unless the proxy service you are using is stripping this SSL and dropping you back to http or decypting it and re-encrypting it with a certificate that they have that can impersonate the site (each cert is signed for each site), then you more than likely will be ok. They could be inserting some kind of Javascript key logger or similar but that would give you ssl errors as it wouldn't be presented to your browser as ssl.
That being said if you go for one of the pay services such as http://accessvpn.com/ and http://www.strongvpn.com/ then you should be ok.

If you are really paranoid you can get pre-paid visa cards at Australia Post shops, or even online.

[GenericBox]

That's an awesome idea... Thanks for the recommendations - I will check them out. Much appreciated.

[simonecuttlefish]

Originally Posted by Secme

snip ---
That being said if you go for one of the pay services such as http://accessvpn.com/ and http://www.strongvpn.com/ then you should be ok.

If you are really paranoid you can get pre-paid visa cards at Australia Post shops, or even online.

Yup - Sorry, we can't remember the name of the paid VPN service we used for a while but they were similar to the links above. Pre-paid visa cards are cool as you can put only the amount needed for the transaction into them, and they are isolated from your real banking services.

[GenericBox]

Yeah sounds perfect. Pre-paid Visa and StrongVPN look the best bet.