A Bank Text Asks About a Purchase: Check Through Your Bank

You receive a text naming your bank and a purchase you do not recognize. It asks you to reply YES or NO. You want to stop an unfamiliar charge, but first you need to know whom you are talking to.

For bank customers facing that message, the useful next step is one independently verified transaction note: what the text claimed, what your bank confirmed, and what happens next. You do not need to decide whether the message looks convincing before contacting the bank yourself.

Leave the text and start a separate conversation

Do not reply or follow its link while you check. If a caller follows up claiming to be the fraud department, end that call before making your own. A familiar name on the screen is not confirmation; our caller ID guide explains that limitation.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guidance on bank verification messages says to report requests for account information using a customer-service number obtained separately from the message. Do not respond or click its links.

A number printed on your bank statement gives you a separate starting point. Do not use a number supplied by the text or its follow-up caller.

Write down the claim before you call

These prompts are a personal worksheet, not a bank form. Record only what the text already contains:

• The bank name it uses and the time it arrived.
• The claimed merchant, amount, and transaction date, if given.
• Whether it asks for a reply, a link visit, or a phone call.
• Whether you already replied or shared anything.

Leave missing details marked "not stated." You do not need to reopen a link or contact the sender to complete the note. Keep account passwords and verification codes out of it.

Ask the bank two separate questions

Once you reach the bank through your independently chosen number, try this opening:

I received a text about a purchase I do not recognize. I found your number on my statement. Can you check the claimed transaction and separately tell me whether the bank sent this alert?

Those are different questions. Finding a real unfamiliar charge would not, by itself, establish who sent the text. Likewise, an empty transaction list is not a reason to return to the sender for instructions.

Use the rest of your note to capture the bank's response:

• Transaction: What does the bank confirm about the merchant, amount, and status?
• Message: Can it confirm the alert, or does that remain unresolved?
• Action: What does the bank advise you to do through its own process?
• Follow-up: Is there a reference number, and when should you check back?

If the bank cannot resolve the question immediately, write "unresolved" and its next step. That is more useful than forcing a yes-or-no verdict from the text's appearance.

If you already replied

A reply does not mean you must continue. Tell the independently reached bank exactly what happened, especially if you shared a verification code or sent money. Report the message promptly, as the CFPB guidance advises. For a broader recovery checklist, use what to do after a scam.

Finish with one sentence in your note: "I contacted my bank using ___; it confirmed ___; my next step is ___." Keep that beside the original message so you can distinguish the sender's claim from the bank's answer.

Vision is a free iOS second-opinion app. Your bank is the source for confirming account activity and the steps available for an unfamiliar transaction.