Posted on 05/18/2023 10:09:03 AM PDT by CFW
Two Home Depot stores in Chicago were defrauded of $5.5 million by scammers who collected $900 credits more than 6,000 times for a single purchase made three years ago, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Officials said the scam began in March 2020 when someone made a purchase of more than $6,000 from the home improvement chain’s 2570 North Elston location. Days later, someone returned to the store and said the purchase was for a tax-exempt church. A store employee accepted the tax-exempt documents and issued the representative a $900 gift card for the tax value, Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah Dale-Schmidt said yesterday.
She said people returned to Home Depot with the same receipt 15 more times that year, receiving $900 gift cards each time. In 2021, the company issued $900 gift cards another 33 times for the same purchase.
(Excerpt) Read more at cwbchicago.com ...
Give me a C! Give me an H! Give me an I.C.A.G.O.
What does it spell?
THEFT!
And just for fun, read some of the other crime stories at this site. I’m surprised anyone remains in Chicago.
And given the new mayor’s plan to obtain funding for the left’s progressive programs, I’m surprised businesses aren’t packing up today to head south.
I have personally seen people turned away from Home Depot for refunds.
One was some lady who had a whole pile of random items and no receipt. She likely stole the items then was trying to get cash. They told her to take a hike.
The Chicago thing was an inside job.
Digital credit is good right?... This was the fault of the store for their own choices of how to handle these things. And not make sure to check back on it. They should not have issued a credit back without the original purchase card to credit it back to on the spot.
Wow.
And that's after somebody in Accounting should have noticed a major increase in refunds for one location. Especially for one area of merchandise. IA and IC might look at things on a periodic basis, but there are entire groups of people in Accounting who are supposed to analyze spikes in location P&L's.
The crooks did not return anything.
They got refunded taxes on the purchase by claiming tax exempt status.
The purchase was not cancelled.
Rather an ingenious scam.
Def Inside job! 6,000 times?
Inside job without any question. I’ll bet the credits were sold on the street for a fraction of the face value. The store needs a new manager and all the customer service staff has to go.
You would think so. Or at least some manager would have noticed this at least once of the 46 times. Or, it could have been an inside job, someone who knows how to work the computer.
There are people, all over, who purchase an item for a one-time use, and then return it before the return-by date comes due. That’s for clothing and shoes and tools and many other things.
This is exactly what AI was built for.....
$6,000 from the home improvement chain’s 2570 North Elston location. ... $900 gift card”
So what is the sales tax rate in Illinois/Chicago?
But then there should have been some red flags showing up, on the sales tax returns that the company files.
Retailers who collect sales tax on purchases file returns and then make the payment to the state.
These huge amounts of tax refunds being given would have caused some big variances on their monthly or quarterly sales tax returns filed with the state.
This is why public companies hire auditors,to verify safeguards and procedures are in place to prevent this kind of thing. Heads will roll.
What does it spell?
REP-PAR-RAY-SHUNS!!!
No wonder SCAM and DECEPTION will NEVER die!
It is possible employees were in on the scheme and received kickbacks.
I am sure the auditors will be taking a hard look at the employees of the two stores.
In urban locations it is common for crooked employees to work with crooked customers in a variety of ways—in some cases the employees might even be under duress by local gangs.
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