Fraud Alerts

Curl Budget monitors your transactions for suspicious activity and alerts you when something looks off. Fraud alerts run automatically when transactions sync, covering three types of potential issues: unusually large spending, transactions above a set threshold, and purchases from merchants you've never used before.

Types of Fraud Alerts

Unusual Amounts

Curl Budget tracks your typical spending patterns and flags transactions that are significantly larger than normal. This uses a statistical method (Z-score analysis) that compares each expense to your recent spending history.

How it works:

1. Curl Budget calculates your average expense and spending variation over the last 90 days
2. When a new expense arrives, it measures how far the amount deviates from your typical spending
3. If the deviation exceeds your sensitivity threshold (default: 2.0 standard deviations), you're alerted

Example: If your typical expenses range from $10 to $80, a $350 charge would stand out and trigger an alert.

Requirements:

• At least 10 prior expense transactions are needed before this detection activates
• Only expenses (money going out) are analyzed — income is not flagged
• Each transaction is evaluated independently against your history

Large Transactions

Set a dollar threshold and get alerted whenever a transaction exceeds it. Unlike unusual amount detection, this is a simple fixed cutoff that doesn't depend on your spending history.

How it works:

1. You set a threshold amount (e.g., $500)
2. Any expense at or above that amount triggers an alert

When to use:

• You want a hard ceiling for spending awareness
• You want alerts regardless of your spending patterns
• You're monitoring a shared account for large purchases

This detection type is disabled by default — you need to enable it and set a threshold in notification settings.

New Merchants

Get alerted the first time you make a purchase from a merchant Curl Budget hasn't seen before. This helps you spot unauthorized transactions from unfamiliar businesses.

How it works:

1. Curl Budget maintains a history of merchants you've transacted with
2. Merchants are identified by their Plaid merchant ID (when available) or by their name
3. When a transaction arrives from an unrecognized merchant, you're alerted

Good to know:

• Merchant history is tracked continuously, even if you temporarily disable this alert type — so you won't get a flood of alerts when you re-enable it
• If a merchant was previously seen by name and later gets a proper merchant ID, Curl Budget links them automatically to avoid false alerts
• Only expenses trigger new merchant alerts, not income

Viewing Fraud Alerts

When a suspicious transaction is detected, you'll receive a notification with details about the alert:

• Unusual amounts — Shows the transaction and how far it deviates from your typical spending (e.g., "3.2 std deviations above typical")
• Large transactions — Shows the transaction and your configured threshold (e.g., "above $500.00 threshold")
• New merchants — Shows the merchant name and transaction amount

Tap any fraud alert notification to go directly to the transaction in question.

Configuring Fraud Alerts

All fraud alert settings are in the Fraud Alerts section of your notification settings:

1. Open Curl Budget
2. Go to Settings (gear icon)
3. Tap "Notifications"
4. Scroll to "Fraud Alerts"

Available Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Enable fraud alerts	Master toggle for all fraud detection	On
Unusual amounts	Alert when spending is unusually high compared to your history	On
Large transactions	Alert when a transaction exceeds a threshold	Off
New merchants	Alert on first transaction with a merchant	On
Push notifications	Send push notifications for fraud alerts	On

Setting a Large Transaction Threshold

When you enable "Large transactions":

1. Toggle "Large transactions" on
2. Enter your threshold amount in the "Alert when above" field (e.g., $500)
3. Any expense at or above this amount will trigger an alert

If you enable the toggle without setting a threshold, it will automatically turn off until you provide one.

Adjusting Unusual Amount Sensitivity

The unusual amount detector uses a sensitivity threshold measured in standard deviations:

• Lower values (e.g., 1.5) = more sensitive, more alerts
• Higher values (e.g., 3.0) = less sensitive, fewer alerts
• Default (2.0) = balanced for most users

The threshold can be set between 0.5 and 5.0.

Shared Workspaces

In shared workspaces, fraud detection uses the most sensitive settings across all workspace members. This means:

• If any user has unusual amount detection enabled, it runs for the workspace
• The lowest Z-score threshold among all users is used for detection
• The lowest large transaction threshold among all users is used
• Each user still controls their own notification delivery (push on/off, in-app visibility)

This ensures no user misses an alert they've opted into, even if other workspace members have less sensitive settings.

Fraud Alerts vs. Other Detection

Fraud Alerts	Double Charges	Duplicates
Flags suspicious individual transactions	Flags pairs of matching transactions	Flags bank-reported duplicate entries
Based on amount patterns or merchant history	Based on same merchant + same amount	Based on identical transaction data
Alerts you to investigate	Suggests one may be an error	Suggests hiding the duplicate
Configurable sensitivity	Fixed matching criteria	Automatic detection

Impact on Reports

Fraud alerts are purely informational — they don't change how transactions appear in your spending reports or budgets. The flagged transactions still count toward your totals. If a transaction turns out to be fraudulent, it will be resolved through your bank (refund or chargeback), and the refund will appear as a separate transaction.

Related Features

• Double Charge Detection - Catches merchants charging you twice
• Duplicate Detection - Catches bank-reported duplicate entries
• Notification Settings - Configure alert delivery preferences
• Push Notifications - How push delivery works