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.

[radiaad]

Same thing happened to me today and no one can help me . They steal 200$ 

[DaneeBT]

@radiaad oh no! It looks like your private messages are currently turned off. You can adjust your preferences in your settings on a browser, not the app. Please send me a private message with your registered email address and gift card number or you may contact us via phone at 1-877-737-4672 or via our live chat for assistance. 

[lexynina]

This exact issue happened to me. It's such a bummer that Sephora is just letting their customers be scammed like this. All I wanted was to use my birthday gift card and now I have to tell the person that gave it to me that their gift needs to be refunded, total drag. Their customer service was disappointing too. 😞

[Dee904]

OMG! Same thing happened to me. Went to use my $100 birthday gift card and had a $0 balance. I called the number on the back and they said it was purchased on the 9/6 which was my birthday party and used the exact  day for 4 $25 purchases.   I DIDNT EVEN RECEIVE THE CARD YET!!! And some other person used it. The person on the phone from Sephora said they can’t do anything about it.  THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! $100 birthday gift out the door.  I WANT HELP WITH THIS MATTER!!!!!  

[LaurieBT]

Hi @Dee904,

I'm sorry about this! It looks like your private messages are turned off, and you can adjust your preferences in your Community settings (on the browser only, not the app). If you would like to send me a private message with more information, I'll be happy to look into this. Alternatively, you may contact our live chat at https://www.sephora.com/beauty/contact-us or call 1-877-SEPHORA (1-877-737-4672). If the chat is unavailable, please keep the page open until the next agent becomes available. Thank you!

Best regards,

Laurie

[Dee904]

Hi Laurie

i turned on private messages.  O look forward to hearing from you 

[Pancakes16]

same thing happened to me was gifted a gift card of 150$ tried using it the other day and the lady said it has 0 balance when it was never used and scratched off. unfortunate this happens to many. I called Sephora gift card tech and they looked at the history saying it was used the same time they added the money with multiple purchases made. unfortunately they can't do nothing about it they should really take better care into there customers and the way gift cards are being purchased . 

[KimberyKM]

Same thing happened to us.  Bought the card for our daughter for Christmas, went to use it at the store and was told it had a zero balance.  Found this forum and ended up calling the number on the card.  They told me there were 2 online transactions in April, 3 mins apart that used all of the funds.  The time of day was during the school day, so my daughter could not make an online purchase.  Got transferred to fraud prevention and was told that they are looking into this, but gift cards must be treated as cash and there are no refunds.  It's awful that they have known for a while they have an issue, but seem to refuse to fix the issue.  Thanks for letting me vent.

[LaurieBT]

Hi @KimberyKM,

I'm sorry to hear this! It looks like your private messages are turned off, and you can adjust your preferences in your Community settings (on the browser only, not the app). If you would like to send me a private message with more information, I'll be happy to look into this. Alternatively, you may contact our live chat at https://www.sephora.com/beauty/contact-us or call 1-877-SEPHORA (1-877-737-4672). If the chat is unavailable, please keep the page open until the next agent becomes available. Thank you!

Best regards,

Laurie

[CHF99]

This happened to me this past weekend.  I was given a gift card of $50 for my birthday and brought it to the store to redeem.  The cashier scratched off the covering to reveal the number, but said the balance was $0 after she entered it.  She wasn't able to give me any additional information, so I called customer support, who was simply able to tell me the date the gift card was purchased and the date it was used (online), which was 3 days later.  They told me the person who purchased the gift card would need to call their financial institution, which seems like it would be futile.  It's extremely frustrating to know this has been occurring so frequently and nothing is being done about it.  Hoping someone can assist me?

[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