Three men are accused in a gift card cloning scheme that authorities believe netted the suspects more than $14 million.

According to a news release from the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (FCIC), Kristians Petrovskis, Romunds Cubrevics and Nurmunds Ulevicus are suspected of gift card cloning and had more than 400 gift cards in their possession when they were arrested.

They were charged with fraudulent possession of gift cards, a first-degree felony. The suspects have been linked to thefts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, central Texas and Louisiana.

The men are from Latvia, the FCIC said.

“These people were all here illegally, and they were all specifically here to commit crimes,” Adam Colby, director of the FCIC, told KTBC.

According to the news release, the three men told prosecutors that they typically stole gift cards from 10 stores a day and have done so daily since May 2025.

Officials with the FCIC said that gift card cloning involves the theft of unactivated gift cards from retail store kiosks. Thieves open the gift card packaging, copy the electronic number off the card, then reseal it before returning it to the kiosk.

When a customer purchases one of those cards and loads money onto it, thieves can check the balance and drain the card of funds before a consumer can use it, the FCIC said.

Colby said that consumers should inspect gift card packaging and check for signs of tampering before buying them.

​“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,” Colby told KTBC. “Beyond that, there really isn’t that much you can do other than to be vigilant.”

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