Topic: Q: How easy is it to charge back Vanilla Gift Cards? (Read 2945 times)

It seems the cardholder had been the victims of some scams and tried to get their money back by contacting the InComm. Though they could be self-claimed victims, but there is still possibility that they were the real. If they had the receipts, whoever they were, the likelihood of their win was supposed to be higher than you who did not have the receipts.


Hong long did you hit chargebacks after you had processed the cards? Someone told me that it occurred about 100 days later, which sounds horrendous.

Let's assume that each card you got was in the denomination of $500. According to your estimate, for every 200 cards only 2 to 6 cards got chargebacks? I think the percentage is quite low.

Have you ever processed American Express gift card? Though the chargeback processes might be the same across gift cards, I am wondering if American Express has a different policy than VISA or MasterCard.

It was flagged as an unauthorized purchase by the card holder.


I was the merchant.  So the chargeback was only filed with one company.

The chargeback paperwork for the customer is extensive and most people don't bother... but it happens.

When that happens Vanilla does the chargeback.  This is the same for all Vanilla cards. (OneVanilla, MyVanilla, and so forth).

The funds are the reissued to the customer on a new card. (I believe.)


Yes and then filled out like six pages of paperwork or something crazy.

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It doesn't happen every often and I've been out of the gift card game for years at this point, so things maybe different... but I doubt it.

They are not easy to charge back, but it's absolutely possible.  Probably $1,000-$3,000 ever $100,000 I'd estimate.

It's rather annoying when it happens.  Your best bet is to reach out to the escrow website and file a complaint, but normally the Bitcoins are gone by then.

Hi, can you specify how you got chargebacks? The only way that I can think of chargebacks associated with Vanilla VISA gift cards as a payment method is involving two chargebacks actually. The payer of the gift card files a dispute with the bank, which decides to side with the payer and initiates the chargeback of the transaction to purchase the card. The other chargeback occurs between the gift card being used as a payment method AND the merchant who accepts the gift card or the platform where the gift card is redeemed. I suspect if the first chargeback is initiated, the second would follow since the gift card issuer has lost money thus has a strong argument to chargeback where the funds have been deposited.
 
The above scenario sounds complex, so it may not be realistic except that the gift card is bought with a stolen credit card. The chargebacks happen in this post, but it may have nothing to do with what I described https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/onevanilla-chargeback-asking-for-advice-5222960 

In your case, it seems that the payer or someone called the gift card company to request a chargeback?

I didn't dispute the chargebacks.  Last thing I want to be is a person who helps pwn some dumb 21 year old woman who is just trying to get a cheap car for her family.

I strongly believe that it was a scammer claiming to be a victim, but I couldn't prove it (within my price range) & if me not disputing actually helps someone... It's ok.

But how can you be stupid enough to fall for a fake Ebay scam, but smart enough to navigate fucking Incomms shit.  I'm sure stranger things have happened though.

Did you win or lose?

I actually won a couple chargeback cases. Shit was weird

SO i Used paypal to cashout the card

Instead of them sending the money back to visa, they took the money out of my receiving account and placed it into my sender account lol.

I cashed out so fucking fast. worst thing to ever do is let money sit in paypal

This is stupid.  A real scammer is going to have all their chargeback pictures predone before the trade even opens probably.  Then they are going to say they were scammed on Ebay or Craigslist or whatever the fuck.

Just had another $500 charge back for a total of $2,500 in the past few weeks.  

I don't think these are honest people charging back though, I believe they know how to game the system and buy these things then scam for a bit.... then vanish.

Winners know when to quit... Fucking bastards!

But losses are losses... we all take them, it's part of the game.

LocalBitcoins is really good about helping collect shit that gets hit with a chargeback.

Were you able to fight back against these cards?

I didn't think that gift cards would allow chargebacks...

However, even when dealing with safer payment methods you should always make sure that the seller is legit instead of a scammer that is trying to take your money, because bitcoin is an irreversible payment method and if the card turned out to be carded then you could potentially get into deep shit.

Make sure that your bitcoin buyer has a receipt and they take a legitimate photo of it, and he uses a marker to write on it.

Also make sure that you spend the gift card before you release.


Jesus Christ that's scary. For real man?

My personal experience with Vanilla Gift Cards is that as long as you get it from a good source, a person that is trustworthy you shouldn’t have a problem with them. However, you should definitely seek to buy these Vanillas for a lot under spot price, as they are perceived as quite risky and are pretty hard to cash out.

I’d say that the best way is to spend the gift card first, before you released the escrow from Localbitcoins.

Also, make sure that you get a photo of the Vanilla card in real life with a few words saying something along the lines “localbitcoins purchase” with their contact details and name on it.

Good luck dude.

I never knew giftcards could be charged back as well. All I thought was that it wasn't possible though what I read about it was that they could disable you account where you entered the gift cards. Which is equally bad as having the amount charged back. I read this about itune gift cards, not sure if this is the same with vanilla.

Fuck yes they can charge them back apparently if the scammer does it right.

I got some bastard that hit me 3 for 3 with deals I did with them... unbelieveable.

They even had women call me both claiming to be a part of a Ebay scam. 

Gtfo!  I find it really hard that 3 people are fucking stupid enough to give out prepaid debit card numbers, but smart enough to navigate Incomm... Fucking bastards.

Just curious, did you read those sellers feedbacks As reading OneVanilla Agreement I found
that Chargeback should be filed no later than 60 days:

You must contact us no later than sixty (60) calendar days after we posted the transaction(s) to the Card Account.
You may view a written history of your transactions at any time by visiting www.onevanilla.com.
In case of a discrepancy or questions about the Card Account transactions you will need to
tell us:
1. Your name and the 16-digit Card number.
2. A description of the transaction(s) including the date and dollar amount.
3. Why you believe there is a discrepancy.
If you provide this information orally, we may require that you send the details listed above in writing
within sixty (60) calendar days after we posted the transaction(s) you are questioning. You agree to
cooperate fully with our investigation and to provide any additional information or documentation we
may need for the claim.
Once we have the required details, information, and/or documents, we will determine whether a
discrepancy occurred. Our investigation may take up to one hundred and twenty (120) days from the
transaction settlement date.. If we ask you to put details in writing and you do not provide them within
sixty (60) calendar days of the date we posted the transaction(s) you are questioning, we may not be
able to resolve the claim in your favor.
We will tell you the results in writing after completing our investigation. If we determine a discrepancy
occurred we will correct the discrepancy promptly and credit the Card Account. If we decide there was
no discrepancy, we will send you a written explanation.

============================
I mean if all those cards are hitting with Chargebacks then Those Sellers Feedbacks should be horrible,

Let say you have 20-30 transactions from the same Seller, now All cards get chargebacks, obviously

you can comeback and Edit Feedbacks.. Explain to me how you think those sellers have 99% - 100% Positive feedbacks

if all they are doing is Fraud like you said? Did you contact them and ask or did you Edit your Feedbacks, so others

know what is going on?

Now about those cards, when you buying them, they are been loaded with money on the fly like Same hour they selling them

You can check initial incomm transaction, how those morons can claim that they are been scammed like 10 min after card

been loaded? Ebay sites? Well, ask then to show receipt, obviously they have none.. Any representative with half brain

can see card been loaded and almost immediately balance spent, there is no room (time frame) for fraud.

Fair warning: Onevanilla and vanilla visa/mastercard are in no way safe unless you have the buyer write on the receipt and distroy the card. Even then a determined scammer may be able to issue a chargeback through visanet(in the case of visa).

I just came across this old thread while doing research on how to fight onevanilla chargebacks. I too thought they were safe because of the fact that terms of service say in the event of a lost or stolen card you agree to a replacement card with the remaining balance and agree to abritration beyond that. I have processed probably a couple thousand of these cards before I started getting hit by chargebacks. In the past two weeks I've had $5500 in chargebacks and I suspect more on the way.  Not all of these cards I asked for receipts because they were high volume traders on lbc but so far in the complaints that I got from FirstData are all saying something along the lines of being scam victims for fake cards/ebay sites. I got all of the cards from LBC and all but a couple from high volume traders(500+ trades 150-250btc+ volume).

So accepting onevanilla and vanilla gift cards is safe? Can someone please confirm this. I personally have not received a chargeback from a Vanilla Card but you never know ...

lol, only card that registered under a USA infor cannot be chargeback, with vanila gift or onevanilla, many buyer got chargeback

Gift cards are effectively 'cash'. They are treated as such by the establishments that sell them. So of course there can be no chargebacks.

Nope don't think gifcards support charge backs .What you can do is since localbitcoins as their own escrow,mean while the coins are in the escrow  before releasing the coins,redeem the gift card into the respective account,once its successfully applied you can release the coins from the escrow.

They obviously dont charge back vanilla gift cards or any gift cards for that matter but they often reset them to zero but that have to do with the quality of the card or the source it was purchased.

I am purchasing a 500$ gift card on Localbitcoins.com and I was wondering how easily are these charged back? I know they are cheaper than stated value for obvious reasons but, how easy is it to charge back these?