‘She kept those items’: Shopper tries to check out with $150 Sephora gift card. Then the worker claims there’s only $91 on it

Walking into a retailer with a fresh gift card can be a great experience—until it isn't.

In a video that has drawn over 368,000 views on TikTok, user Lisa (@girlwithcatitude1 on TikTok), a customer of beauty retailer Sephora, says her gift card had a mysterious purchase placed on it just moments before the first time she attempted to use it.

She says she received the $150 Sephora gift card from her fiancé for Christmas. But when she went to purchase items in-store, she was informed that there was only $91 on the card.

"[The Sephora worker] scans it the first time, and then she looks at it like, 'Hm, let me scan it again,'" she says in the video. "I guess it didn't work. So she scans it, and then she goes, 'OK, so your total is $82,' and I'm like, 'How much is everything without the gift card?'"

The Sephora worker told Lisa the total cost of her items was $174. But that wasn't correct—at least, if Lisa' gift card had the full $150 on it.

"And I'm like, 'I should only owe you $24.' She goes, 'Well, um, I don't think there's enough to cover on here.'"

Figuring out the issue

When Lisa insisted that her gift card had $150 on it to start, the employee questioned her. Lisa says the worker asked if she was sure of what the balance would be before using it.

Her fiancé, who was their with her, backed her up—because he purchased the $150 gift card for her.

The employee then asked if she wanted to void her purchases, to which she said yes. Lisa says she then called customer service in front of the employee.

A customer service representative told her a $58 purchase was made three minutes prior to her calling, just before her items were rung up, and the representative could not see what was purchased.

@girlwithcatitude1 Don't ever buy a @sephora Gift card ever #sephora #giftcardscam #beware #vancouver #westvancouver #sephoraparkroyal @sephoracanada ♬ original sound - Lisa Marie

When the in-store employee again insisted that she did not charge the poster, Lisa questioned it. The employee scanned the card twice because it did not work the first time, she says.

At this point, a manager stepped into the conversation, while customer service relayed what she told Lisa on speakerphone: there was a $58 charge, but neither party could identify where the charge came from, or were not willing to.

Ultimately, the customer service representative was only able to tell her that yes, her card was loaded with $150 a month prior, and that there was a $58 transaction just before she tried to check out.

When trying to reach a solution with the manager, Lisa says they suggested it could be gift card fraud. Lisa says the customer service representative could not track her balance, and the store declined to investigate her claim.

A new attempt

So she tried to call Sephora's customer service again. This time she didn't mention her complaint about the gift card's lower balance.

This time, the representative was able to see the transactions and balance history. Here, Lisa felt she had caught them.

"I have emails from your team saying that you guys can't check transactions, I explained everything to her about the incident at the store," she says.

The representative stayed silent on the line, she recalls, before they suggested that she report this to her bank.

"What does my bank have to do with this?" she asked. "Your staff is incompetent at the store and your staff from the care team is telling me one thing, three different people replying to me. I have all in writing on email, by the way."

She says she has seen other people sharing their own experiences of similarly having gift card balances depleted while in-store. The beauty retailer was not of much help in those cases, either, Lisa claims.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Sephora via email regarding the video, as well as to Lisa via TikTok direct message.

Viewers weigh in

Several viewers shared in the video's comment section that they have experienced something similar themselves.

"I don’t trust Sephora either," one commenter wrote. "I went to get my birthday gift and they said I already claimed it. I’m like ummmmm no I haven’t. I would know ! I really think an employee did it."

"Same happened to my sister 200$ on gift card they said it’s empty then I called my credit card company they said I have to customer service Sephora they said they cannot do anything," another commenter wrote.

"I was at Pacific Centre with a $100 card in Sunday- they scanned it and told me it was a $90 card," a commenter wrote. "I had no fight left after shopping with my teenager all day but now I’m suss."

How prevalent is gift card fraud during the holidays?

Gift card fraud is quite prevalent around the holidays when people are more likely to give them as convenient alternatives to cash.

Fraudsters can steal the balance of gift cards right after they are purchased by gaining access to the payment information located on the back of the card, even while remaining in cardboard packaging.

How can I prevent my gift cards from being stolen?

There are some ways to reduce the risk of purchasing a gift card that has been compromised:

• Purchase gift cards from behind the cashier counter, where other customers have less access to them
• If purchasing a card that is not behind a counter, ensure the packaging is not damaged to reduce the likelihood of the payment information being compromised.

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