Investigators say the crew stole unactivated cards, copied numbers, then drained balances after shoppers loaded funds.
GARLAND, TX — Three men are jailed in North Texas after state investigators said they carried out a monthslong “gift card cloning” scheme that siphoned an estimated $14 million from shoppers across Texas. The arrests followed a tip to Garland police in mid-December and recovered more than 400 gift cards, officials said.
Authorities with the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center said the case centers on a simple tactic executed at scale during the holiday shopping rush. Investigators allege the trio stole unactivated cards from store racks, copied the electronic numbers, resealed the packaging and returned the cards. When an unsuspecting customer later bought and activated one, the group allegedly monitored the account and quickly emptied the funds. The suspects are accused of targeting stores daily since May, with activity reported in the Dallas–Fort Worth area and other parts of Texas as well as nearby states, officials said.
Garland police said they were alerted on Dec. 15 to suspected gift card theft at a Walgreens on Broadway Boulevard. Officers who searched a vehicle reported finding a shopping bag filled with gift cards in the trunk, with an initial potential loss pegged at more than $26,000. By Dec. 24, state and local agencies said three men had been arrested in connection with the broader operation. Investigators identified the suspects as Kristians Petrovskis, Romunds Cubrevics and Nurmunds Ulevicus. The men allegedly told investigators they worked seven days a week and hit about 10 stores a day for roughly seven months. “The rate at which they were doing these, they were trying to do it very quickly,” said Lieutenant John Haecker of the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center.
Officials said more than 400 gift cards were seized at the time of the arrests. Investigators linked the group to cases across North Texas, Central Texas and the Gulf Coast, and said similar activity was noted in neighboring Louisiana. Haecker, who leads a Dallas field office for the intelligence center, described how thieves remove cards without paying, open the packaging to capture the number, then repackage them to look new. Once a buyer activates the card, the balance can be drained within minutes. It was not immediately clear how the suspects allegedly tracked balances, and authorities did not release a detailed list of the specific retailers involved. The men were booked on fraudulent possession of gift cards and remained in custody, officials said.
Investigators said the arrests came as state agencies and local police increased coordination around retail fraud during the holiday period. The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center, based in East Texas, has worked with departments in Dallas, Garland and other cities to track patterns and share data. In statements describing the scheme, Haecker said the suspects moved quickly between stores and sometimes left signs of tampering behind. He noted that even seasoned investigators have encountered cloned cards in their own lives, underscoring how quickly balances can disappear once a compromised card is activated. Authorities did not disclose how many shoppers were affected statewide or provide a full accounting of losses by retailer, citing the ongoing investigation.
Records show the case is among the first high-dollar investigations to proceed under a Texas law that explicitly targets gift card tampering and possession of cloned cards. The provision, which took effect in September, elevates fraudulent possession of gift cards to a first-degree felony in some cases. In this investigation, two of the suspects were booked into the Dallas County Jail, while a third remained held in Garland, officials said. All three had immigration detainers, according to local jail records. It was unknown whether the men had retained attorneys or if bond had been set in each case.
North Texas saw a surge of retail theft and payment fraud cases around the holidays, police departments said, with “cloned” or tampered cards among the most disruptive for consumers because the losses can surface only after a gift is opened and activated. Investigators said the alleged cloning ring focused on volume rather than high-dollar single transactions, which helped them avoid early detection. The estimate of $14 million represents the statewide scope of activity tied to the group, according to state officials, and includes cases flagged by cooperating agencies from May through December. Authorities did not say whether they believe other crew members are at large or how the alleged ring was organized beyond the three arrests.
Officials said the arrests were part of a joint operation that included the Garland Police Department, Dallas police teams, the Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The investigation remains active as detectives sort seized cards by retailer and date and match them to complaints from shoppers whose balances vanished. Evidence will also include surveillance images from store aisles and kiosk areas, packaging materials