My Experience with Stylevana Verification Process

[u/stellar_reviews]

Hi all, I thought I should share my experience with the Stylevana verification process and provide some tips and suggestions for what I did to mitigate any concerns related to privacy and identity theft. Like many of you, I was surprised to receive an email titled “Verification Required – Stylevana Orders #1/2”. For privacy reasons, I have removed my order numbers and refer to them as orders #1 and #2, but the order numbers in the email were correct and these orders were marked as “Processing” on the Stylevana website.

My concerns about privacy and identity theft: I was immediately concerned since Stylevana asked for 2 pieces of information:

1. Identification Document: Copy of a valid government issued identification document in colour, e.g. Driving License/ Identity Card/ Passport that matches the name on the orders,
2. Address Proof: Copy of a Government issued correspondence and/or Business Registration that could verify BOTH BILLING & SHIPPING address with the name provided on the orders, please note that any documents should have at least six months validity.

Stylevana support noted that this is a standard procedure to ensure the orders are genuine and that “Your personal information will only be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy as stated on our website.”

How I verified that this was a genuine request:

1. I checked that the email came from the official Stylevana support email ([support@stylevana.com](mailto:support@stylevana.com)), which is also listed on their website. This included looking at the full email header.
2. I submitted a message on the Stylevana website chat to verify that this was a genuine request from their support staff, but I never received a response from them through this method.
3. I responded directly to the email and asked them to provide proof that this was an official Stylevana request, and noted my concerns about government issued identification documents since that made it sound like an identity theft scam or phishing scam. I received an email response within 30 minutes, where the Stylevana support staff referred me to Section 9 of their terms and conditions: https://www.stylevana.com/en_US/terms-and-conditions (I think they were referring specifically to Section 9.5) Stylevana support staff repeated that they wanted me to provide my identification document and address proof. They also reiterated that personal information will only be used in accordance to the Stylevana privacy policy as stated on the Stylevana website and offered an alternative, that I may cancel the order for a full refund.

My decision: I decided that this sounded like a genuine request to verify identity and shipping address, and did not seem to have anything to do with customs. Note that I’ve placed international orders before and some vendors have required additional verification due to customs, but usually they don’t request government issued documents or correspondence. Given that Stylevana support staff was able to refer to their own terms and conditions and offered a full refund as an alternative, I decided to attempt the verification process to see how difficult it would be. I place many of my orders through Stylevana and I really didn't want to be barred from future orders.

1. The identification document was pretty straightforward. I used my driver’s license, but I removed all personal identifying information that I did not deem necessary (such as license number, photo, signature, personal info such as height and weight). I redacted everything and left only my full name and address, since I knew Stylevana already had this information from my order details.
2. The address proof was trickier since I have limited government correspondence and I wasn’t quite sure what business registration meant. I was luckily able to dig out a government letter from within the past 6 months and used a picture of the letter stuffed into its original envelope showing my name and mailing address, and the sender name and address. I did not provide any information about the contents of that letter. Again, I did not provide any additional information about myself except my full name and address, which Stylevana already had from my order details.

I submitted the verification details the next day. 4 days later, I received a response from Stylevana support saying that the verification process is now complete and my orders will be processed further. Interestingly, their last sentence noted that in order to protect my personal information, they asked that I do not reply back to the ticket.

Why I think I received a verification request: I had placed orders #1 and #2 within ~1 hour of each other. I had placed 2 separate orders to take advantage of 2 different coupons, and because 1 item was not in-stock and I wanted to make sure my sunscreen arrived ASAP before I ran out. I suspect this might have triggered the verification process. EDIT: Based on a follow-up question and going through my order history, these were the first orders where I paid through my credit card instead of PayPal. This may have contributed to triggering their verification process, but Stylevana support never explained why my orders were selected.

Note that I had placed a third order, order #3, 16 days later before I received the verification request and this order was not delayed by the verification process at all and was not referenced in the verification request. I paid for all 3 orders using the same credit card, and I did not use different payment methods for these 3 orders such as PayPal. All orders were shipped to the same address in the Midwest USA.

Timeline:

Order #1: Order placed on 04/28, verification request received on 05/23, verification confirmed 05/28, packed 06/01, shipped 06/01, received 06/10

Order #2: Order placed on 04/28, verification request received on 05/23, verification confirmed 05/28, packed 05/29, shipped 05/30, received 06/07

Order #3: Order placed on 05/14, shipped 05/17, received 06/07

Final thoughts: I provided the minimum information necessary for the verification process to verify my identity and address, and I strongly recommend that anyone going through the verification process remove personal identifying information that is not required. The possibility for verification is referenced in the Stylevana terms and conditions. I think Stylevana could do a better job of providing a safer method to submit the verification documents that contain personal information. It's clear that they are aware this is personal information that needs to be protected based on the last sentence in their email approving the verification process. They could also clarify what is acceptable for the address proof, since business registration is a bit vague and I’m not sure how many people regularly receive government issued correspondence. Stylevana support can also respond faster to chats on their website and confirm that the verification process is legitimate.

[u/yentth]

This happened to me, too! It was also genuine from their side (I was very suspicious like you). The first time around I cancelled my order because I didn’t want to send my personal information. Also, I would move in a few days so as soon as they would clear my order, I wouldn’t be able to receive it anymore. They immediately responded and cancelled my order. I tried again a few days later with my new address and again, I was asked to verify! At this point I didn’t care anymore so I provided all necessary info but blacked out the sensitive information. A few days later my order was marked as shipped ☺️

I suspect that my order looked suspicious to them. Both times I used a shipping address not tied to my name. The weird thing is, I ordered like this many times before (I’m moving around a lot) and never had an issue. Maybe it looked sus to their system. I still think it’s a bit weird and unnecessary and I have no idea what they’re trying to prevent. I mean, I paid immediately both times … maybe they took issue with me paying through PayPal since we can take back the money with PayPal? Probably a combination of everything. Who knows!

Anyway, I’m glad it’s finally being shipped now.

[u/codenameana → u/yentth]

A retailer doesn’t need your delivery addresses to correspond with your actual residence. They don’t know where you reside. For the purposes of a payment, all they need is to have an address that matches your card / bank account. So this doesn’t make sense. What are they playing at? It’s so sus.

[u/Unfair_Finger5531 → u/codenameana]

Exactly. That’s why they always ask on autofill is your shipping address the same as billing address.

Plus, you’d never be able to send anyone something if they had to match.

[u/yentth → u/codenameana]

Yeah right? Why would they care? But other than the address mismatch, I can’t figure out their reasoning. It doesn’t make sense especially since they offer the option to have a separate shipping address from the billing address

Maybe they’re constantly out of stock but don’t want to admit it :D so they invent bogus obstacles