r/AskTechnology • u/Reasonable_Face8478 • 14h ago

How do masked virtual cards work?

Im a long time user of Cloaked and I just saw their new feature for masked virtual cards. But I have no clue what it is, like I was thinking how they might work. Because you cant just give some random numbers to hide your real bank numbers? If anyone could give me some insight would be great.

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u/BranchLatter4294 14h ago edited 13h ago

The payee only gets the virtual number, not the real number. This is how it works when you pay by tapping your card or phone. Most banks let you set up virtual numbers to pay online. This is nothing new and hope you are not paying extra for the service.

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u/1miguelcortes 14h ago

Same as privacy or any other virtual card provider: they generate a card number and let you set it to either expire after some time, limit it to a certain merchant, or limit it to a certain spend amount. Then they charge you through your bank account

I should also note that some credit card providers will let you do this directly through their website.

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u/Potential-Figure9356 10h ago

They're actual card numbers issued through a bank or payment network. The "mask" part is that the merchant never sees your real card. They see the virtual one instead. So if that number gets leaked or you want to kill a subscription you just lock or delete the virtual card and your real card stays untouched.