Kristians Petrovskis, Romualds Cubrevics and Normunds Ulevicus are accused of taking part in a $14 million gift-card scam.
Dallas County Jail
We’re always interested/slashed annoyed to learn of new scams, particularly around the holidays. So we were intrigued by the announcement from the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center that it has busted three men accused of running a gift card scam worth an estimated $14 million. We hadn’t heard of this one before. So many scams. So hard to keep up.
We say “new,” but this scam is more “newish” and has become widespread enough in the past few years that the Texas Legislature this year enacted a law more clearly defining gift card fraud and upping the penalties.
How does it work? Scammers go to stores or kiosks and steal empty gift cards, TFCIC Director Adam Colby told the Observer. They open them carefully, obtain the card number and activation code, then carefully seal and cover up any tampering before returning the cards to the store. The info from the cards is keyed into a computer running a program that keeps watch until someone buys one of the tampered-with cards and loads it up with money. The thieves then instantly transfer the money on the card to themselves, leaving the purchaser with a worthless piece of plastic.
Victims’ cards are sometimes drained before they return to their cars at the location where they made the purchase, Colby said.
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We thought that seemed like awfully hard work for a criminal, but Colby pointed out that the scammers can readily steal 100 cards a day. Unsuspecting consumers then load them with varying amounts, and it adds up quickly — to $14 million in this case.
Kristians Petrovskis, Romualds Cubrevics and Normunds Ulevicus are facing charges of fraudulent possession of gift cards and are currently incarcerated in the Dallas County Jail. They also have holds placed on being released on bond on suspicion of being in the country illegally, according to jail records.
“The three men told investigators that they usually steal gift cards from 10 stores a day, seven days a week and have done so since May 2025,” according to a press release from TFCIC. “They are linked to recent offenses in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Central Texas and Gulf Coast areas.”
They had 400 gift cards in their possession when they were arrested.
Chinese criminal groups had been the leaders in gift-card scams, Colby said, but criminals sometimes share information, and Eastern Europeans have taken up the scam.
Dallas is already a major hub for package theft from porch pirates, and the added prospect of being handed a valueless gift card from Grandma is just one more way thieves make the holiday season less bright, assuming Granny isn’t just tightfisted and screwing with you.