Cover a banking-app screenshot before you send it

Support asks for a screenshot of the failed transfer. The screenshot includes the IBAN, the balance, and your legal name in the profile chip.

Cover all three. Last four of a card is still a problem if the rest of the shot has enough to guess the rest of the account. Do not “soft blur” an account number. Short digit strings are the textbook case where blur fails.

What to cover in the chrome

• Legal name and profile avatar in the header chip.
• Balances, available credit, and hiding-eye totals that are still visible in a widget.
• IBAN, routing, account, and card numbers — full or last four.
• Payee names and saved-bill nicknames.
• Transaction lists with counterparties you did not mean to show.
• Branch addresses, QR deposits, and barcode pay screens.
• Session device lists and “last login from” rows if you captured settings.
• Notification banners with amount plus last four.

They want the error modal, not your net worth. Crop to the modal. If the modal includes a number the bank forgot to mask, bar it. Never include the SMS or authenticator OTP in the same image. The channel changed; the secret did not. Same rule as WhatsApp login codes.

Black bar, always, for digit runs

Banking UIs love tabular figures. A light blur keeps the digit silhouettes. A mosaic with large cells keeps grouping. A highlighter is a tint. Paint an opaque rectangle that covers the full run, including spaces and country codes on IBANs.

Why that is not optional is in blur versus black bar. Use a bar even if the bank already shows bullets for most of the card — if your capture somehow shows the bullets failing, you finish the job.

Widgets, widgets on the home screen, wearables

A phone screenshot of “the app” often includes a home-screen widget with a balance. Crop the widget or bar the amount. Watch complications and lock-screen previews are the same leak at a smaller size. If you photographed a wearable, bar the digits there too.

Split-screen captures put a messaging app next to the bank. Bar both sides’ identifiers. Do not teach anyone how to social-engineer a bank; just do not hand them the raw numbers.

Statements and PDF views inside the app

In-app PDF viewers are still screenshots when you capture them. Cover account headers. If you need one line item, crop to that row after barring the header. Do not attach a full statement image to a public forum thread.

Transfer confirmation screens repeat the payee and the amount after the error toast. Keep the toast, bar the payee if they are a person, bar the account chips. Reward dashboards and credit-score widgets are extra numbers you did not need for “the button did not work.” Check the bottom tab bar: some apps show a miniaturized balance on every tab.

FAQ: The bank asked for a selfie with the card. What now?

Use their official in-app flow when they offer one. If they ask for a still, cover every digit you were not told to show, and do not post that still on social media. This article will not walk through how to fake ownership. It will say: minimize what leaves the phone.

FAQ: Can I hide the balance with the app’s eye icon?

Use it, then still inspect the screenshot. Widgets, recent-transaction amounts, and notification previews often ignore the eye. Bar what the eye missed.

FAQ: Joint accounts and family plans?

Other people’s names on a joint tile are not yours to publish in a meme about “this fee.” Bar names. Keep the fee toast if that is the artifact.

FAQ: Open banking dashboards that show several banks?

Aggregator screens are a list of institutions plus balances. Crop to the one error. Bar the other tiles. Connection status next to a bank name is enough to map your stack.

Cover IBAN and balance in the tab, export PNG, attach only the error modal. BlurThis paints the bar on-device.