Three men from Latvia have been nabbed in Austin, Texas, for allegedly peddling in a complicated gift card scam which netted close to $14 million, as per a recent bust by the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center. According to KVUE, the trio—Kristians Petrovskis, Romunds Cubrevics, and Nurmunds Ulevicus—were caught with over 400 gift cards on their persons at the time of arrest, each charged with the first-degree felony of Fraudulent Possession of Gift Cards.
These three suspects had reportedly been visiting roughly 10 stores a day, every day of the week, engaging in this fraud since May 2025, targeting locations within the Dallas-Fort Worth, Central Texas, and Gulf Coast areas. They were detained by authorities following a thorough investigation by the statewide financial crimes unit based in Tyler, Texas. As FOX7 Austin reports, Adam Colby, director of the FCIC, shed light on the methodical process these men followed: "They're stealing gift cards off the shelves from various big box stores," cards which initially hold no value at all.
After filching the cards, the suspects would move to another location, where they meticulously uncovered the concealed card numbers without leaving evident traces of tampering. These numbers were then plugged into a special monitoring program, which notified the perpetrators the instant a card was activated and loaded with funds. "As soon as it is activated and money placed onto that card, the criminals are now aware of it, but they now have the ability to transfer the money off of that card and onto another card where it is then cashed out or used to buy high-end merchandise," Colby told FOX7 Austin.
This operation exemplifies a growing threat in the arena of financial fraud, one that consumers should remain wary of. Colby advises shoppers to keep an eye out for any signs of interference with gift card packaging before making a purchase. While checking a gift card's balance could reveal any foul play, most people opt not to do this as they intend the cards as gifts, rendering preventive measures less effective. "The only way once you purchase it is to actually check to see what the balance is on that card, but unfortunately, most people are going to give it as a gift, and they don't want to scratch it off to see what's on there," he further explained in the statement obtained by FOX7 Austin. Vigilance, it seems, remains the consumer's strongest defense against such deceptions.
