Posted on 12/27/2025 5:25:42 PM PST by CFW
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas officials are warning the public about a fraud scheme that could impact gift cards sold across parts of Texas.
The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (FCIC) arrested three men, accusing them of stealing about $14 million from gift cards purchased at stores from Dallas-Fort Worth to Central Texas and across the Gulf Coast.
In a press release, investigators with FCIC said the three men were arrested for the scheme, which was believed to have started back in May 2025.
FCIC said the process they allegedly used to scam consumers is known as gift card cloning. It begins with a perpetrator stealing unactivated gift cards from retail store kiosks.
Criminals will carefully open the gift card packaging so they can copy the electronic number from the card. The card is then put back in its packaging and resealed. The scammer then returns the card to the store kiosk and waits for a customer to purchase and activate the card.
(Excerpt) Read more at kxan.com ...
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This is why we keep paying more and more for products and more and more for taxes. It has to stop!
Pronto!
I received a gift card last year that I activated right before using it while shopping.
Gone in seconds.
I will say, I got two gift cards this year that appeared to have several extra “layers” of security that didn’t exist last year and I was able to use the full amount for all this time.
Maybe the cc companies have decided they don’t want the doj on their asses this time? You know, another money laundering/theft scam operation that gets funneled to democrats.
Remember the Chinese are a big part of this?
“Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has launched “Project Red Hook” specifically to combat this issue, highlighting the significant involvement of these groups. Authorities report that a large percentage of individuals arrested for “card draining” activities are Chinese nationals or Chinese Americans.”
Here is an ICE report on the website about one Chinese crook.
OCALA, Fla. — A Chinese national has pleaded guilty to the possession of more than 6,100 unauthorized gift cards in a scheme to defraud consumers and major retailers out of $1.9 million following a joint investigation with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Orlando and the Ocala Police Department.
Donghui Liao, 32, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/chinese-national-pleads-guilty-gift-card-fraud-scheme
Ten years isn’t enough.
Singapore has very little crime.
I’ve only received a few gift cards in my life. None this year for Christmas. I did get some cash which is sort of like a gift card but just a tad more versatile.
Here’s the way it works in the good ol’ USA:
Minor crimes: get probation
Bigger crimes: get probation
Then we wonder why so criminals graduate up to major crimes.
they do it with green dot cards also ...
“Fake businesses: City worker allegedly sent taxpayer funds to relatives’ bank accounts”
https://www.wnd.com/2025/12/fake-businesses-city-worker-allegedly-sent-taxpayer-funds/
“A then-employee at the City of Austin’s energy utility allegedly paid $980,000 in taxpayer funds to fictional companies with bank accounts belonging to his family members, according to a new report from the city auditor.
Mark Ybarra was given a city credit card from 2018 to 2023 to hire repair companies for city buildings. He used it to pay 30 different vendors, but the city auditor could only verify that eight of them were real companies, according to the report.
Ten of the companies reportedly had the same address, which the city auditor said is the home of one of Ybarra’s relatives. The businesses received $400,000 from the city. One of them had Ybarra’s email address listed as its contact information, according to the report.
The remaining $580,000 went to businesses that “appeared to be fake,” many of which were missing basic information like an address and phone number, according to the report.”
There’s been a big increase in this here in the DC areas. Stores are warning people to make sure the cards haven’t been tampered with.
Happened to me. Only they had scraped one of the cards ID number off. I couldn’t even look at the account. Store told me it happens a lot during Christmas.Criminals very good at resealing the card package.
They should be sentenced to government labor (full pay) till they pay back all they stole. Or till they are 75 years old. Some time off for good behaviour. Then booted out.
I dislike receiving gift cards, and never buy them, they are just a way for the card companies and crooks to skim money. They are a royal pain in the butt to use too, and when someone gives one to me it is usually for some retailer I don’t even shop or have never heard of.
All I can do is say “thank you” so I don’t hurt their feelings and then later pass them to whoever I know who likes that retailer or restaurant.
The giver means well and it is generous- but I wish they wouldn’t go along with these scammy business gimmicks.
I would rather they give me a rock picked up from the side of the road, and spend their money on a real gift for a random elderly person stuck in a nursing home alone.
Those cards are just cold.
These guys were white dudes named Petrovskis, Cubrevics and Ulevicus.
Illegals from Latvia , I wonder if they are also Roma.
I don’t like receiving gift cards either. The gifts seem like an after-thought that were purchased at the grocery check-out line. I once received one for a restaurant chain. The closest restaurant was 60 miles away. I sold it at half price to a co-worker.
Illegals from Latvia… what border did they cross, I wonder?
Given their ages they are probably Latvian draft dodgers.
And the others are not.
You’re right, though. Not all are Chinese and so on.
How about chain gangs?
The worst crooks to me are the identity theft ones.
As my IT expert former friend used to say: “They never go to prison and are rewarded with jobs detailing how to do high tech thievery in return for telling it.”
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