Victim Location 95765
Total money lost $250
Type of a scam Counterfeit Product
My mother bought me a Vanilla Visa gift card at a CVS in Sacramento, CA. The outside packaging was perfectly sealed, but my gift card inside had been tampered with. Someone had copied the barcode and security numbers of the original card, printed it on a piece of paper, and glued that paper back onto the card with a new expiration date and security code. They had already stolen the original card with the money on it. My mom was scammed out of $250. The barcode was copied exactly, so the clerk was still able to scan the counterfeit card. I called Vanilla Gift Cards customer service to tell I couldn’t use this card because of the paper on it and they said I needed to activate the card, but the card numbers were invalid. They said I had to open up a claim providing pictures and receipts. You will know if this has happened to your card because you can feel the paper over what is normally a plastic card. And if you try to rip it off, the paper sticks really hard onto the card and you can’t get it off. Now we have to file a claim providing a ton of information and pictures just to get some sort of replacement or refund, even though CVS already knew they had a bunch of cards stolen. CVS should not be carrying cards from this sketchy company. Vanilla gift cards doesn’t even disclose their corporate office location on their website, and they don’t let you delete and account with them or erase your email address info with them which is illegal in CA.