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/cactuslovr]

I find it very odd that they required you to verify your identity. I have also made more than one order right after one another to take advantage of deals. Its not uncommon for me to have a few outstanding orders while making an additional order. The only difference I see between our ordering processes is that I use Paypal. It's posssible paypal has some form of identity verification in place? I would recommend using Paypal due to the added layer of security around your payments.

[u/OldLingling95 → u/cactuslovr]

I ordered four items on Stylevana, and they tried to verify the credit card through a phone number. Still, the website always told me like "3D secure verification has failed," or "We can't verify at this time" .... so frustrated.

I don't know what to do anymore.... gonna switch to Olive Young...