Absolutely right in every point. And "Probable Cause" in this case is whatever the police want it to mean. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Ben Franklin

Please leave my patented Orbital Cannon out of this.

For online purchases buy those visa cash cards, e.g. Vanilla Visa. They work well online, at least domestically in the US. As long as you're not having something shipped to a physical address, they're reasonably anonymous. I'm probably committing some sort of felony when I enter a fictitious address (for something I'm having delivered electronically), but I'm not losing any sleep over it.