Saw this post on Research Radar and this is a great and useful read! "I want to talk about something that has nothing to do with peptides specifically but has everything to do with how you should be buying anything online — research compounds included. 👉🏼 Use a virtual card number. Never give a vendor your real card number. Before I get into the how, let me be clear about the why, because I see this misconception constantly: ⚠️ The fraud charges most people get hit with don't come from the research space. They come from random data breaches at companies you bought a t-shirt from two years ago, gas station skimmers, third-party processors getting popped, malware on your own browser, restaurants where someone walked away with your card for 30 seconds. The research vendor narrative gets blamed because that's the most "suspicious" looking purchase on the statement after the fact — but in reality, your card number has probably been floating around the internet on a dozen breach lists for years. A virtual card solves this. Your real number stays on the card. The vendor gets a unique number that: - Is tied to your account but isn't your account number - Can be locked, paused, or killed in seconds - Can have a spend limit set on it - Can be merchant-locked, meaning even if the number leaks, only that one merchant can charge it - Can be disposable — one-time use, gone after the purchase If a number gets compromised, you delete it. You don't have to call your bank, wait for a new card, update every recurring bill you have, none of that. The blast radius is one card and one merchant. Here is how to actually set this up depending on what you carry. ✅ Option 1: Privacy.com (works with any bank — what I recommend if you want maximum flexibility) This is the simplest path and what a lot of people in this community already use. Privacy.com is a separate service that connects to your checking account or debit card and lets you generate virtual Visa or Mastercard numbers on demand.