Fraud protection tools from Capital One

With digital payments becoming the norm, it’s more important than ever to find reliable ways to help protect yourself from credit card fraud. Luckily, Capital One offers a number of alerts and security features you can use to help monitor your credit card account. 

Read on for more information on how these tools can help keep your account more secure.

Key takeaways

• Capital One’s fraud alerts can notify you if suspicious activity is spotted on your credit card account.

• You can opt in to account alerts in the Capital One Mobile app or online.

• Other tools from Capital One like card lock, virtual cards, CreditWise, proactive alerts and Eno can also help you prevent card fraud and monitor your accounts.

Capital One cardholders have access to tools they can use to monitor their accounts for suspicious activity and take steps to help protect their card information from scammers. Here’s a brief overview of a few of these security features.

When you bank with Capital One online or through the Capital One Mobile app, you can benefit from account alerts and notifications designed to help protect you from potential fraud. If Capital One notices suspicious activity on your card, they’ll send you a text message informing you of the questionable charge, with the option to lock your card from further use if necessary.

You can also opt into instant purchase notifications, which will alert you when a transaction is completed on your account for greater than the amount you defined. And Capital One can proactively notify you if we spot unusual activity on your account, such as a higher-than-usual tip or a duplicate charge.

Follow these steps to manage account alerts for your Capital One account:

1. Sign in to your Capital One account online or in the mobile app.

2. Add your mobile phone number to your account if you haven’t already done so.

3. Navigate to the “alerts” section online or the “alerts and notifications” section on the mobile app.

4. Select the alerts you’d like to opt in to and via which channels.

Tip: Fraud alerts from Capital One are different from the credit fraud alerts you might place on your credit report if you’re the victim of credit card fraud. Those alerts, which are placed with a credit bureau like Experian® or TransUnion®, stay on your file for one year and are intended to ensure no new credit accounts are opened in your name without your knowledge.

If your card is ever misplaced, lost or stolen, Capital One also makes it easy to temporarily lock your card until you resolve the problem. Card lock is free to use and can be accessed through the mobile app or your online account. And you can just as easily unlock your card with a few clicks once you’ve determined it’s safe to do so.

For added peace of mind when shopping online, you can use virtual cards from Capital One. Virtual cards offer numerous benefits, but one primary advantage is they use a unique 16-digit code in place of your actual credit card number. This allows you to make purchases without sharing your actual card number with online stores, reducing the chances of compromising your actual card number in case of a merchant data breach or scam. 

Another way to potentially spot fraudulent activity on your accounts is to regularly monitor your credit score and credit report. CreditWise is a free service that alerts you to changes in your credit report, which may tip you off if someone opens a new line of credit in your name without your knowledge. It also scans the dark web to help make sure your personal information, such as your email address or Social Security number (SSN), hasn’t been compromised.

You can sign up for CreditWise online or easily access it within the Capital One Mobile app.

Credit card fraud can be scary, but Capital One provides alerts and other security tools that can help you catch fraud early and take action to prevent fraudsters from racking up charges in your name. 

And these alerts and tools are available to Capital One cardholders through the Capital One Mobile app. Download the app today and see how it can help you better manage your money.