A new $1.525 million fund will offer potential restitution to eligible California residents who lost value from Vanilla gift cards after suspected package tampering. The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office announced the settlement with InComm Financial Services on October 23, setting a February 19, 2027 deadline for claims. [S1][S2]
The agreement resolves a government lawsuit brought in 2023 on behalf of the People of California. It creates a recovery process for specified historical card losses, with the possible payment depending partly on the documentation submitted. InComm denies the allegations. [S1][S2]
Documentation sets the potential recovery
Payment ceilings without an optional Proof of Claim
Two nested limits in the official Vanilla Gift Card Restitution Fund notice.
USD, conditional payment ceiling
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Sources
California settlement announced October 23, 2026. Only the route without optional Proof of Claim is shown. A valid Claim Form and Attestation, eligible card and qualifying loss remain required. USD 15 per card and USD 30 per claimant for no more than two cards are nested ceilings, not additive funds, average losses or actual payments. Administrative costs and claims with complete or incomplete proof are allocated first. If allocations exceed the fund, no-proof payments are prorated downward. No claimant count, approval rate or payout total is inferred.
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| Category | Up to |
|---|---|
| Per eligible Vanilla card | 15 USD, conditional payment ceiling |
| Per claimant, maximum two cards | 30 USD, conditional payment ceiling |
The official notice distinguishes the required Claim Form and Attestation from an optional Proof of Claim. A person submitting no optional proof may still be eligible for up to $15 per qualifying card, limited to two cards and $30 in total. Those limits describe one claimant’s possible recovery; they are not two allocations that can be added together. [S1][S5]
More complete documentation changes the calculation. A valid claim with complete Proof of Claim qualifies for the full reported eligible loss on each card; an incomplete submission may qualify for up to 75%, depending on the evidence. The fund pays administration costs first, then claims supported by complete or incomplete proof, before the no-proof claims. If those allocations exceed the fund, payments without proof are reduced proportionally below the $15-per-card ceiling. [S5]
The covered cards are non-reloadable Vanilla Prepaid Gift Cards bought in California from November 1, 2019 through September 30, 2024, whether the claimant purchased the card or received or otherwise lawfully acquired it. Claimants must be California residents and have lost access to funds through unauthorized transactions believed to result from package tampering. Only losses not already refunded by InComm are eligible. The notice requires a completed form and attestation by the deadline; mailed submissions must be postmarked by that date. [S1][S5]
The distinction matters for a gift product that can pass from purchaser to recipient before a problem is found. The complete-proof route calls for the purchase receipt, front-and-back card photographs, transaction history identifying the unauthorized charges and, where applicable, records of an earlier refund request. A recipient without that entire record may have a route to a smaller payment, subject to the same eligibility rules and fund constraints. [S1]
The lawsuit alleged that weaknesses in card packaging let criminals obtain card information before purchase and subsequently make unauthorized transactions. It also alleged that some affected cardholders were improperly denied refunds. These remain allegations described by the City Attorney, rather than findings of liability established by the materials reviewed for this report. [S2]
InComm told NBC Bay Area that it considered the lawsuit misguided and was pleased to resolve it. City Attorney David Chiu told KQED he did not know how many Californians had been affected. The fund’s headline value therefore cannot establish the number of victims, their total losses or how much the eventual average payment will be. [S3][S4]
Verita Global will administer the fund and be paid from it, so the $1.525 million is not a verified total available solely for claimant payments. The official notice expects payments by approximately June 19, 2027. That is an expected schedule, rather than evidence that claims have already been approved or paid. Any money left after administration and valid claims will support future consumer-protection enforcement. [S5]
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Daniel Brooks
Daniel Brooks covers payment networks, financial technology, payment security, gift card fraud and PCI DSS for Gift Card News.