“Home Depot Heist: Catching the Mastermind Behind the $300K ‘Fake Return’ Scheme!”

A Connecticut man, Alexandre Henrique Costa-Mota, 26, was arraigned in federal court in Providence, R.I., accused of a scheme to defraud Home Depot stores in eight states of nearly $300,000 using fake returns. Prosecutors claim that from June 2021 to February 2022, Costa-Mota conducted fake returns at over two dozen Home Depot stores in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. He dressed as a contractor, taking Anderson doors into the stores, attempting to make returns without receipts at the Service Department. Each successful return earned him store credit, which he later redeemed at other stores, mostly in Connecticut. In cases where stores refused receipt-less returns, he would leave with the doors without paying and then return them to other stores for credit. Costa-Mota reportedly received around 370 fraudulent store credits, valued at $297,332. An indictment charging Costa-Mota with wire fraud and conspiracy was returned by a federal grand jury in Providence on July 26, 2023, with the United States Secret Service taking part in the investigation.