A Man Was Just Charged for Scamming Home Depot Out of $300,000 — And a Popular, Customer-Friendly Policy Made It Easy The scheme unfolded between June 2021 and June 2022 and spanned several stores in different states.

"You can do it. We can help." One Connecticut man had his own interpretation of Home Depot's well-intentioned tagline.

Alexandre Henrique Costa-Mota, 26, of Hartford has been arraigned on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud after he scored nearly $300,000 in Home Depot credit with a fraudulent door-return scheme that spanned stores in several states, AP News reported.

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Costa-Mota dressed as a contractor and walked in empty-handed, then put one door or several doors valued at hundreds of dollars onto a cart before heading to the service department and returning them without a receipt, prosecutors allege in court documents.

If Costa-Mota was denied a return at one store, he would take the doors without paying and return them to a different location; between June 2021 and June 2022, he racked up 370 fraudulent store credits worth $297,332, according to authorities.

Home Depot's return policy allowing customers to return purchases without a receipt helped Costa-Mota pull it off.

"We require a valid driver's license or government-issued photo identification for non-receipted returns and returns generated from purchases made with The Home Depot store credits," the company's website states. "The Home Depot uses a third-party refund verification system."

It appears Costa-Mota used his own ID just once before presenting multiple fraudulent licenses with other names, per court records.

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Home Depot isn't the only big-box retailer with a generous return policy that puts customers first: Kohl's, J.C. Penney, and Walmart also accept purchases back without a receipt, according to NerdWallet.