{"id":505851,"date":"2026-10-23T22:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505851\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T22:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:52:19","slug":"gift-card-draining-how-to-apply-for-compensation-after-san-franciscos-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505851\/","title":{"rendered":"Gift Card \u2018Draining\u2019: How to Apply for Compensation After San Francisco\u2019s Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new fund is available for Californians impacted by scams involving Vanilla gift cards from 2019 to 2024. How to check if you qualify.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Close-up of a woman inserting $20 bills into her wallet. If you believe you\u2019ve faced a financial loss using Vanilla gift cards, you may be eligible for compensation through the fund. Read on to learn more about how to apply.\u00a0(Grace Cary via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

On Friday, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu<\/a> announced over $1.5 million in funds will be made available to Californians who were impacted by a gift card scam in recent years.<\/p>\n

The new fund, which Chiu called \u201ca win for consumers,\u201d is a result of a settlement from the city\u2019s 2023 lawsuit<\/a> involving Vanilla gift cards<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vanilla gift cards \u2014 made by Georgia-based company Incomm \u2014 are prepaid cards<\/a> sold in places like grocery stores or gas stations, which can be given as gifts or used by the purchaser as an alternative to cash. The city\u2019s suit alleged that the \u201cinsecure cardboard packaging\u201d<\/a> of these gift cards was susceptible to tampering by scammers, who were able to take some or all of the money before the card recipient could use it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, according to a 2023 press release,<\/a> also claimed that Incomm and its partner banks knew \u201cabout the obvious security problems for a decade\u201d and \u201crefused to remedy the issue or provide consumers refunds for fraudulent transactions as required by law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"City Attorney David Chiu speaks at a press conference at City Hall in San Francisco on Sept. 22, 2026, about a lawsuit his office filed against Truth Social over the sale of early access to President Donald Trump\u2019s posts.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Chiu said this scam is called \u201ccard draining\u201d and that the funds would help \u201cput money back into the pockets of those who were victims.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He told KQED that while he did not know how many Californians were impacted by the scam, the city had been prompted in part to file the case by \u201chundreds of complaints [by] folks all over the state and the country who were victimized here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you also believe you\u2019ve faced a financial loss using Vanilla gift cards, you may be eligible for compensation through the fund. Read on to learn more about how to apply.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KQED also has a guide on other scams that are common in the Bay Area<\/a>, including text scams and utility-based scams. \u201cWe\u2019re living in a time where we\u2019re seeing just record levels of consumer scams,\u201d Chiu said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re really glad this case will be behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHow can I check if I am eligible for the fund?\n<\/p>\n

You can check your eligibility on the settlement\u2019s official website cagiftcardsettlement.com<\/a>. The deadline to apply for compensation is Friday, February 19, 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Criteria for eligibility include:<\/p>\n

Being a current California residentHaving purchased a non-reloadable Vanilla Prepaid Gift Card between November 1, 2019, and September 30, 2024 in CaliforniaHaving received a non-reloadable Vanilla Prepaid Gift Card that was purchased in the above time frame in CaliforniaNot being able to use \u201csome or all of the money\u201d on the card \u201cbecause of charges you did not authorize\u201d\u00a0Did not receive a refund from the parent company, Incomm Financial Services, for money lost.<\/p>\n

\nWhat do I need to submit on the website?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

You can submit a claim form, an attestation and a proof of claim form. Since this is a lot of information to pull together, be sure to check out the website<\/a> for the exact specifications.<\/p>\n

According to the settlement\u2019s website<\/a>, the claim form is mandatory for receiving compensation. This is where you will provide details including:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your home address, including your address when you bought the Vanilla gift card, if different from your current addressThe stated value of the card when it was purchased\u00a0The approximate date and location of purchaseThe amount of money spent in unauthorized transactions that you believe were the result of a person stealing money from the card by tampering with the packagingThe 11-digit serial number on the back of the Vanilla gift cardEither the 16-digit card number of the Vanilla gift card or a statement that the Vanilla Gift Card\u2019s 16-digit card number was altered or scratched off when you opened the card<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also be asked to make a mandatory \u201cattestation,\u201d in which you must affirm that the information you are providing is true under penalty of perjury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A man holds his phone while looking at a receipt.\u00a0(iStock via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Unlike the claim form and the attestation, submitting the proof of claim form is voluntary. But if you do submit it, you may qualify for even more money. Here, you need to submit details like:<\/p>\n

When you submit your claim, the settlement allows that the SF City Attorney or the Claims Administrator \u201cmay share your claim information with the Company to be checked against the Company\u2019s records.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\nHow much could I get paid?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Your potential compensation depends on whether you submit the proof of claim form or not.<\/p>\n

According to the website, a valid claim with a completed proof of claim form might get all of the money back that you lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new fund is available for Californians impacted by scams involving Vanilla gift cards from 2019 to 2024.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-505851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}