How Do I Report Fraud to Capital One?

Introduction

If you found unauthorized charges on your Capital One account, or if you tried to purchase something that turned out to be a scam, you need to know how to report the fraud to the bank. The procedure is not complicated, but there are a few things you need to do first.

What You'll Need

To reduce the chance of future fraud, enroll in paperless billing. That way, your account information can't be read by anyone going through your mail or trash.Enable purchase notifications so that you get alerted to unauthorized transactions the moment they are made.

Talk with any other authorized users of your card or account.

See if they made a transaction you just didn't know about.
If the suspected fraud is not an unauthorized charge, skip to step 4.

Check your subscriptions.

See if you have a recurring payment that you forgot about, or if a free trial period has just ended, resulting in a surprise charge.

Look into the merchant's name.

It is possible that an unfamiliar charge might actually be a purchase that you made, but that the bill comes from a parent company that has a different name than the seller.

Call a Capital One representative and report the fraud.

Capital One customer service
If you found an unauthorized charge on your account, continue on with the next steps to secure yourself against further financial damage.

Go to the Capital One home page.

Capital One home page

Click on the "Sign In" button in the upper right hand corner to sign in to your Capital One account.

To lock your debit card, click on the account with the linked debit card.

Locking your card will prevent anyone else from making transactions on it until you can get a new card sent to you.
If you need to lock a credit card, skip to step 11.

Click on "Account Services & Settings."

Select "Lock your card" in the "Manage Debit Card" section.

Click on "Yes, lock my card" to confirm.

If you do not need to lock a credit card, skip to step 16.

Go to your dashboard.

Select the account of the credit card that you want to lock.

Go to the "Protect and Replace Your Card" section.

Click the "Lock Card" option.

Confirm that you want to lock your card.

Wait for your replacement card to arrive.

The Capital One representative you spoke to when you reported the fraud might have asked you if you wanted to get a replacement card shipped to you. If they did not, call Capital One again and ask for a replacement card.

Conclusion

If you need to talk to a Capital One representative, you can reach one 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, if you are reporting fraud, it might be best to make the call during normal business hours, in case other departments need to get involved.