A Charlotte, North Carolina, businesswoman might be out $1,000 due to a credit card dispute for a gift card. After some sleuthing, she thinks the customer deliberately and fraudulently charged back the gift card purchase.
At least, that’s what Alexandria Kitchens (@alikkitchens), licensed nurse practitioner and owner of Meraki Aesthetics, explained in a TikTok video with over 25,000 views. According to her, a couple or just a female client tried to scam her out of $1,000 by reporting an alleged fraudulent chargeback.
Woman Uses $1,000 Gift Card for Cosmetic Treatments
Kitchens says that in February 2025, she gave a Botox treatment to a woman who had a $1,000 gift card. She says she chatted extensively with the woman about her insecurities to work out a great plan for treatment. Additionally, because the client had a little bit of extra funds on her gift card, she ended up receiving additional services that added up to a $1,000 value.
Kitchens says she and the customer had a great time during the appointment. They chatted, with the female client adding some tidbits about her partner at the time. Kitchens felt as though the appointment went extremely well, and she made a great connection with the new client.
Then, She Gets a Notice for a Chargeback
That’s what she would’ve assumed forever, if not for what happened afterward. The customer left, and nothing happened for a month. Then, she noticed a suspicious notice in her inbox.
“As a small business owner, you know, I’m checking all my emails at the end of my day and I’m like, ‘huh, someone disputed a charge.’ [It] doesn’t happen too often here, but I like to look into it when it does ’cause I’m like, ‘Why would someone dispute a thousand-dollar charge?'” Kitchens explained.
She then says she looked into the dispute, which was made on March 17 for a gift card purchased a full month prior on January 31st. Curious, she dug deeper.
That’s when she realized that a man had actually purchased the gift card in the dead hours of the morning, right before the female client’s appointment. When the man who purchased the gift card disputed it, it was because the card was “not present.” Kitchens thought this was extremely unusual, as the card was very clearly a digital gift card; of course it wouldn’t be present when the female client used it.
Kitchens then realized that the man who purchased the card had the exact same last name as the female client who came in for services. On top of that, she noted that the female client knew about the gift card and wanted to maximize the $1,000 charge when she was there. For those reasons, she thought that something was amiss about the chargeback.
Kitchens’ Allegation of Chargeback Fraud
Considering all of the unusual factors tied to this specific chargeback, Kitchens alleged that the two people—the client and the man—were related in some way and were trying to commit chargeback fraud. She later emphasized that it could’ve been one person or the other and not necessarily both people. However, she did feel as though she was getting scammed by someone who engaged with her business.
“She basically scammed me with her husband or boyfriend or whatever he was because she said husband and boyfriend. Or maybe she just scammed me herself and there is no significant other,” Kitchens reflected.
She added that it was wild not only because the couple waited a full month to make a chargeback, but also because Kitchens runs a small business. One thousand dollars makes a noticeable difference, especially considering the fact that Kitchens has to account for and regularly purchase new technology, invest in new education, and pay her employee’s wages.
“A thousand dollars makes a difference to me, especially when I’m responsible for people’s paychecks, livelihoods, [and] the expenses that it costs to run a company,” Kitchens added. She clarified in her video that she would dispute the chargeback, especially considering the fact that she gave full services for the treatment.
Commenters Offer Sympathy and Solutions
Other small business owners added that they’ve noticed an uptick in chargeback schemes in recent months.
“I work for a salon with 70ish employees. So we have a lot of credit card charges. The disputes are up dramatically in the last few months and we’ve been losing them more and more. It’s so upsetting that these scammers just get away with it,” one viewer said.
Considering this, more people recommended taking protections against chargebacks, other than requesting a valid ID at the start of appointments or taking steps to verify a person’s identity pre-appointment. But there’s not really a way to “defend” against them until they happen. For that reason, viewers told Kitchens she should take every measure she can to get the funds back.
“Can you file a police report for theft, challenge the dispute, then file small claims? Please start requiring [a] copy of id to keep on file, maybe it will deter them. This is so sad [people] can consciously do this, I’m so sorry,” another viewer said.
Charlotte’s small business community left some comments expressing sympathy, adding that they hope Kitchens gets the money back.
“Ugh I hate this happened! Charlotte area small business owner too and totally would feel gutted just based on all the expenses we have that I just don’t think people even think about or understand,” one commenter added. “It’s hard! Sending virtual hugs.”
AllHipHop reached out to Kitchens via TikTok direct message and TikTok comment for more information. We’ve also sent an email to Kitchens’ small business. We’ll let you know if she responds.
@alikkitchens Wild things you see as a business owner 🤷🏻♀️ #storytime #scammeralert #smallbusinessowner #femaleentrepreneur ♬ original sound – Injectorali_meraki