I called them up and was given that address.

On returning a call to this number, I was asked to first enter or say my 16-digit card number. Next I was asked for other identifying information for my account, including the zip code for my billing addess and 10-digit home phone number. When I eventually spoke with someone who identified himself as a fraud department investigator for Capital One, I started getting suspicious because of his heavy Latin accent. He told me that my credit card had been placed under restriction due to an unusual transaction yesterday– then told me the exact vendor name, date and amount of the transaction. Next he asked me to identify the 3-digit security code on the back of my card. After a long pause without hold music, he came back on-line and told me that he had released the restriction on our account.

The only thing he didn’t ask me to identify was the expiration date on my credit card.

After the phone call, I immediately logged into my credit card account via the Internet. By this point, I didn’t see anything about a restriction placed on my account. So I configured security alerts for any suspicious activity and all transactions in excess of a set dollar amount to be emailed to my daytime (work) email account. Nothing in the way Capital One handled this situation by phone call led me to feel secure. One would think that its fraud investigation department would have asked me one of the security questions I set up when creating my log-in account– or better identified themselves by knowing confidential information instead asking me to provide it.

You can never be too safe when it comes to identity theft.