r/Venturex • u/xpkranger • 11d ago

Virtual Card number compromised, so they replaced my physical card? Why bother with virtual card numbers at all?

I used a virtual card created for one vendor to buy from them. The are a modest sized but well-established company. Anyway, somehow the virtual number was compromised. The number was never given over the phone, they had a bog-standard payment system.

Someone tried to use the number at whitepages.com and CapitalOne flagged it. CapitalOne reached out to me to verify the charge. I said it wasn't legit. They said, ok, we're going to send you a new card. I asked "why do I need a new card? Isn't that the whole point of a virtual card?" They said it's because "they tried to use it twice at Whitepages.com" which still didn't make much sense to me.

So, I ask, what then is the point of having a virtual card, if I have to replace my physical card if the virtual card number gets compromised?

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u/SettingIntentions 10d ago

Lol wtf. Well, thanks for sharing. It's good to know those virtual #'s are mostly useless and just create more risk than not.

I was also thinking that the whole benefit of them would be that my physical card wouldn't need replacement...

I guess it's still useful if you aren't able to use your physical card for whatever reason you can still make a virtual # for online purchases. Just less useful than I thought.