General Discussion

"confirming that whoever is calling has reached a person who is connected to a specific active credit card at a specific phone number helps them build a financial profile connected to you"

In the specific case I described (which is by far the most common instance in which I receive fraud alerts regarding accounts I know are actually mine), the (possible) fraudsters are calling/texting you regarding a credit card purchase you know you actually attempted to make. Which means they *already know* that the phone number and credit card are linked. Therefore, somebody replying 'yes, I attempted to make this purchase' doesn't tell them anything more than what they already know, except that, at least at times, someone or something will reply from this particular phone number. It does not establish that they've reached a person who is connected to the card.

I guess what I'm saying is I absolutely get the logic of not responding to fraud alerts where you know you did NOT make/attempt to make a purchase (obviously especially true when you don't even have such an account). But if you are trying to make a purchase, the merchant says it was declined, and 10 seconds later you get a text that seems to be from your bank saying "did you attempt to make this purchase" and it's the correct card, amount and place you are at, I cannot grok the risk in replying "yes", in order to allow your purchase to go through, and avoid the hassle of your card being shut off.

Though I concede I may be inclined to justify taking an action that I myself do on the regular