Consumer complaint received 2026-04-29 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account — Company closed your account
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
I am filing this complaint regarding the closure of my XXXX credit card account ending in XXXX, which I have held in good standing for over five years and which was current at the time of closure. BACKGROUND I have maintained this account for over five years with no missed payments, no returned payments, and automatic payments set up throughout. My automatic payment cleared successfully the same month my account was closed. This account has previously experienced fraudulent activity, which XXXX resolved without ever requiring additional income verification or IRS consent. No other financial institution I have a credit relationship with has ever made this type of request in my entire credit history. WHAT HAPPENED In XX/XX/year>, I received an email from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX sent via XXXX requesting that I sign IRS Consent Form 4506-C on behalf of XXXX Card. This email did not originate from a XXXX email address and was indistinguishable from a phishing attempt. The Internal Revenue Service publicly and explicitly warns consumers that it never initiates contact via email and that unsolicited emails requesting IRS-related action should be treated as potential fraud. I followed this standard consumer fraud protection guidance and did not engage with the unverified email. I regularly receive phishing emails and text messages impersonating financial institutions. My XXXX account has previously experienced fraudulent activity. Given this history I had heightened and well-founded reason to treat unverified communications appearing to be from or related to XXXX with extreme caution. XXXX chose to use unverifiable third party communication methods to reach an account with a known fraud history, which placed an unreasonable burden on me as the consumer. The only direct outreach I received from XXXX was a voicemail left on XX/XX/year>, from a phone number with no caller ID. I had no means of verifying this call originated from XXXX Financial Services rather than a fraudulent party. As a standard consumer fraud protection practice consistent with FTC guidance I do not answer calls from unknown or no caller ID numbers. I did not receive any physical mail from XXXX at any point regarding this verification request, the deadline, or the potential consequences of non-response. GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT 1. FAILURE TO PROVIDE PHYSICAL ADVERSE ACTION NOTICE I was never provided a physical adverse action notice as required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, informing me of the reason for closure, the verification source used, or my consumer rights. Email through a third party sender does not satisfy this federal requirement. 2. UNVERIFIABLE COMMUNICATION METHODS Every communication XXXX used in this process was unverifiable. The email came from a third party sender via XXXX. The voicemail came from a no caller ID number. I was never given any direct, verifiable communication from XXXX itself. Their verification process was indistinguishable from fraud by design. 3. ACCOUNT HAS PRIOR FRAUD HISTORY This account previously experienced fraudulent activity. XXXX resolved that incident without requiring IRS income verification. They then initiated a sensitive IRS verification process years later through the least secure and least verifiable communication methods available, despite knowing this account had a fraud history. That is an unreasonable standard to hold me to. 4. NO PRECEDENT IN MY CREDIT HISTORY No other financial institution I have a credit relationship with has ever required IRS income verification. This was an unprecedented request I had no reason to anticipate, making it even more reasonable that I treated it with suspicion. 5. ACCOUNT WAS CURRENT WITH NO FINANCIAL RISK SIGNALS My automatic payment cleared the same month the account was closed. There was no delinquency, no missed payment, no returned payment, and no financial risk signal of any kind on this account at the time of closure. XXXX closed a current, paying, five year account over an unverified email and a no caller ID voicemail. 6. DISPROPORTIONATE CREDIT IMPACT This is my oldest credit account. Its closure causes significant and disproportionate harm to my credit profile, including immediate impact to my credit utilization ratio and long term impact to my length of credit history all as a consequence of not responding to communications I had no reasonable way to verify as legitimate. I was a loyal, long standing customer in good standing who was given no verifiable or reasonable opportunity to respond to an unprecedented request delivered through communication methods indistinguishable from fraud. I have also filed a complaint with the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX regarding this matter.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation