NORTH PROVIDENCE — Three men who allegedly almost got away with bilking a Maytag dealership out of $18,000 in appliances by using carbon copies of credit-card slips retrieved from a Dumpster in Warwick have been arrested by North Providence and Woonsocket police.

North Providence Deputy Chief Paul Marino said detectives yesterday were developing information that could link the suspects to fraudulent purchases of furniture, appliances and mattresses in at least five communities in Rhode Island and four in Massachusetts over the last month. He said some of the victims might not even know yet that they’ve been defrauded because many credit-card companies haven’t sent out their monthly statements. Marino said the scam may have netted the identity thieves tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise.

Steven Rendine, the proprietor of Rendine’s Maytag, in Centredale, told the police that he received a phone call April 4 from a man who said he needed 29 appliances to furnish a new apartment building in Woonsocket, including dishwashers, refrigerators, gas ranges, washers and dryers. He said the man supplied a Master Card credit-card number that he submitted for processing and it was immediately accepted.

Rendine said he always seeks credit-card approval for purchases. When a man identifying himself as Michael Brooks, of Milford, Mass., showed up at his store April 6 to pick up some of the appliances in a Budget rental truck, Rendine said he checked his driver’s license, took down the plate number on the truck and put the credit-card number in again. The proprietor did the same two more times when Brooks picked up the rest of the appliances April 9 and 10.

Later, on April 10, Rendine was notified by MasterCard’s bank fraud division that it was not going to cover the $18,000 in charges because they were fraudulent.

North Providence Detective Sgt. David Drezek and Detective Frank DelSanto learned that the truck that Brooks had used had been rented from a store in Cumberland but never returned. After Cumberland police recovered the vehicle later that day in a supermarket parking lot, North Providence detectives determined that it had been rented to two individuals — Brooks, whose picture was later picked out of a line up by Rendine — and Mark MacNeil, of 47 Bennett St., Woonsocket.

On Monday of this week, the same day that Brooks turned himself in, the detectives went to a warehouse at 179 Front St., Woonsocket, where they recovered 20 of the 29 appliances. Arthur Martins, the warehouse owner, told the police he had purchased the goods at a heavily discounted price from another man, James McNeil, 37, of 25 Roberts St., Woonsocket.

Woonsocket police arrested McNeil on charges of obtaining goods under false pretenses. They also picked up the other alleged accomplice, MacNeil, on several outstanding bench warrants.

Yesterday, MacNeil, being held at the ACI, was arraigned in District Court on three counts of credit card fraud brought by North Providence police.

Marino said one of the suspects told detectives the ring obtained credit information from credit-card slips left in a Dumpster behind the Tweeter Home Entertainment store on Bald Hill Road in Warwick. He theorized that the thieves picked Tweeter’s Dumpster because it is a “high-end” store whose customers are more likely to have high limits on their credit cards, making it less likely a large purchase would be turned down.

He said identity theft was becoming increasingly common, and the incident should help to serve as a warning to stores and customers to make sure that credit information is not put in a place where it can be picked up by passersby.

Detective Drezek said the information the police were working on yesterday suggested that stores in at least nine communities have also been hit by fraudulent purchases in the last month.

The communities hit so far, according to the police, include Providence, North Providence, Pawtucket, Cumberland, and Woonsocket, along with the Bay State communities of Attleboro, Barnstable, Franklin and Milford.

Brooks was arraigned in District Court, Providence, on three felony counts of obtaining goods under false pretenses and was released on $20,000 personal recognizance. MacNeil was ordered held at the ACI to await action on several bench warrants, while McNeil was ordered held as a violator of the conditions set by Superior Court on a previous felony conviction.

Marino said the police were conferring with the U.S. Secret Service on whether any federal laws were violated that may warrant federal prosecution.

rdujardi@projo.com