In a significant crackdown on retail fraud, three men face charges of grand larceny after authorities unveiled their alleged involvement in a $14 million gift card scam. The individuals, identified as Kristians Petrovskis, Romunds Cubrevics, and Nurmunds Ulevicus, were arrested and are currently held in Dallas County jail. As reported by Star-Telegram, these men are accused of engaging in a gift card cloning operation that spanned across several Texas regions, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Central Texas, and the Gulf Coast.
Despite appearing as an unlikely source of such extensive fraud, gift card kiosks turned out to be the trio’s target. Authorities detailed that the suspects would steal the unactivated gift cards from the kiosks, manipulate the packaging to copy the card’s electronic information, and then carefully reseal the packaging before replacing the cards for unsuspecting customers to purchase. This practice allowed them to monitor and subsequently drain the funds from the cards soon after they were loaded with money by legitimate customers. In a press release by the Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center, and echoed by WFAA, the suspects admitted to stealing an average of 10 gift cards daily since May of this year…