BEWARE! Sephora Gift Card Fraud

[TriHan]

Bought $50 Sephora gift card for a friend on Dec 10, 2023. My friend tried to buy Sephora products using the card for the first time on Dec 17, 2023. However, the cashier said that the balance on the card was $0, which was strange.

I called the number on the back of the card and apparently this exact same card was used in an online purchase on Dec 14, 2023. When I asked for more information on who that person was, customer service reps pushed back and said the didn't have access to that information. I asked if I can help report this fraud so that Sephora is aware and can look into it. The customer rep told me to go talk to the FTC. 

Reading online, this is a common issue with Sephora gift cards:

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Customer-Support/Gift-Card-FRAUD/m-p/6737910#M287735

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Customer-Support/Gift-card-fraud/m-p/6700729#M284278

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Customer-Support/Fraud-gift-card/m-p/6739669#M287924

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Customer-Support/Gift-Card-Fraud/m-p/6606392#M278621

This smells of internal fraud. why? because the back of the card was not even scratched off when i purchased it. how would anyone have access to the card number.

[sugibugi]

This same thing happened to me today and customer service was useless. Someone used my gift card online, even though the cashier scratched off the card to reveal the account number in the store. Sephora sucks! They won't investigate or do anything. Don't they care that they have a bad reputation and are losing customers?

[DaneeBT]

@sugibugi I'm sorry to hear about this! It looks like your private messages are currently turned off. Please send me a private message with your gift card number or you may contact us via phone at 1-877-737-4672 or via our live chat once more for assistance. Thank you!

[PamNY]

Why is nothing being done about the gift card fraud at Sephora.    I was also a victim and will never buy or gift a card again.  I also will be moving my business to Ulta since Sephora seems to not care about this issue.

[polly0314]

This same thing happened to me! Sephora gift card scam and customer service won’t do anything about it! Just says to talk to your credit card company but it’s not credit card fraud it’s internal fraud at Sephora! 

[pixelbypixel]

Just happened to me. Got two different Sephora gift cards from two different people on my birthday. Each$50. Came to the store to spend and both of them have $0 balance. Called support and they told me it works like cash and nothing they can do. There is obviously a huge problem people stealing gift card numbers. 

[MKscotch]

I had this same situation! A friend gifted me a $50 Sephora GC in January and I never shop at Sephora but I decided to finally go use the gift card today and when I handed it to the cashier she scratched off the back to see the number and pin since it was brand new and then she said it was empty. I asked if she could see the history and she said I’d have to call the number on the card. When I called they said it was used in two online purchases in March and I asked for the order information and they said they couldn’t tell me due to privacy reasons. But the cashier even saw that it was BRAND new it was even still attached to the cardboard before I handed it to her, and they couldn’t replace it.

[ncb0512994]

I am also dealing with this issue. The card was not tampered with at all prior to using. Reps over the phone told me I’m pretty much SOL unless I have the issuer contact their bank. Though, at this point they do seem to acknowledge that there is some sort of internal fraud going on. The rep herself said that there was fraud that they cannot rectify at their level.  Still, people are out thousands of dollars on gifts for their loved ones and no one seems bothered by that. 

[everything1994]

Same thing happened to me. $50 gift card for my birthday say a $0 balance when i try to use it. Then the customer service say it was used online. Talked to supervisor and told me this happens a lot. So Sephora know people money is being stolen and nothing is done about it. Not ok, they need to be hit with a lawsuit 

[Hannaman]

The exact same thing happened to me, my son gave me a 50.00 Sephora gift card., and was a 1.00 balance & they purchased online. These thieves have some kind of thing that they can just walk by &It can scan cards without them touching them. That's why they use them to purchase online. I said to the rep from Sephora the thieves had to give an address for Sephora to send the order to & she was like dont have that info well somebody in this company has this info. Or there is not just one but a few people that work at Sephora that's stealing not from Sephora because their getting the money that are friends, family are purchasing these gift cards to give as gifts and the honest people are the ones getting Screwed.Sephora has to know that this is happening, so when they get these calls they should honor them in good faith. Or instead of ignoring it. They can track these orders the thieves are doing online going to address somewhere. There is a lot of computer people that can track them down. This is 2024 for god sakes 

[LaurieBT]

Hi @Hannaman,

I'm sorry about this! Thank you for reaching out to us. I'll send you a message shortly.

Best regards,

Laurie

[vapidio]

Same here.

customer service is terrible.  Says it cannot do anything due to terms and conditions, but the same terms state card needs to be present.

this is completely ridiculous, and Sephora doesn’t want to acknowledge it.

[MaysaaG]

The same thing happened to me today. I called Sephora customer service and they told me that there’s nothing they can do about it. I feel so frustrated.

[pwindham]

I had the same thing happen recently. My friend wasn’t able to redeem her gift card, called the number in the back of the card to get assistance and was told the gift card was already used on March 18 even though the code had not been scratched. 
Is there anyone else we can contact to resolve this issue?

[LaurieBT]

Hi @pwindham,

I'm so sorry to hear this and I'll send you a message shortly.

Best regards,

Laurie 

[jansherm]

The same thing happened to me. I received 2 cards for 100 each on Mother’s Day.When I went to use them they had a zero balance. No one will help me! Both of these cards were purchased at Albertsons. They said they were not responsible,  they called Sephora and Sephora would not give them any information.  I called Sephora and they said to call Albertsons. No one will help, it’s very frustrating. We are loyal customers, this should not be happening…

[Bailey4206]

Same thing just happened to me! Gift card was purchased at Walgreens and not attempted to be used until today (6/4/24). Cashier said zero balance. I called the number and was told the card was used on 5/12/24 but that was all they could tell me. Transferred me to customer service where I was told they couldn’t help me since it was purchased at a third party retailer. She suggested I call Walgreens. Ummm how is Walgreens going to help me with a Sephora gift card. Something smells funny if everyone is having these same issues. 

[LaurieBT]

Hi @Bailey4206,

I'm sorry to hear this! I'll send you a message shortly.

Best regards,

Laurie 

[Riamaleah]

This happened to me as well. Please help me.

[keelybt]

@Riamaleah I will send you a PM. 

[JessLau12]

Same thing happened to me today. $50 gift card GIFTED to me from my employer. I pulled the card off of the cardboard it comes on at the store to use it, and was told it had $0. The card number and pin hadn’t been scratched off, and wasn’t scratched off until I called the number on the back of the gift card to see what was going on, to give the number to them. They were able to see MULTIPLE transactions made yesterday with the gift card, when I told them something weird was going on and that the database that holds all the gift card information had to have been hacked into, because there’s no way possible for anyone to have gotten the numbers that I didn’t even know until 2 minutes ago, I was told that “their system can’t be hacked” LOL. Well there’s no other explanation for it. Then I was told nothing can be done, gift cards are treated as cash and can’t be replaced if lost or stolen. Even though I didn’t lose it and it was stolen/hacked from issues on SEPHORAS end; that has obviously been brought to their attention multiple times based on these reviews. I was then told to call my bank. For what? The gift card was valid when it was purchased and then was virtually STOLEN. Should I call my bank when I pull $50 out of the ATM and drop it on the ground without noticing? Why should my bank pay for their fraudulent/shady transactions? Furthermore, I didn’t purchase the gift card and it might be hard to get ahold of the CEO of the large company I work for to let him know the gift card I was given was hacked after purchase and ask for another one since Sephora wont hold themselves accountable. It sounds insane to even have to explain that, and for them to stand by that solution is even worse. THEN when I thought it couldn’t get worse, I asked them if they can see the order that was placed with MY gift card, then can they cancel it? And then credit my account the $50? No, it’s a security issue. But my stolen gift card wasn’t. 

I basically felt like they thought I was the one trying to get $50 out of them and that I was in the wrong for wanting reimbursed. They KNOW this is a problem, so maybe until they can rectify the issue, they should happily credit the customers account and take the loss on the small amount of money they’re losing. I was actually baffled by the way this was handled and never in my life have I stopped shopping somewhere over terrible policies and customer service, until today. I’ll take my thousands spent there a year and go to the actual brands website to purchase. Even reimbursing me the $50 wouldn’t make me go back there at this point. Get it together Sephora, it’s embarrassing.