Locksmith Scam
The all too common locksmith scam starts with somebody needing a locksmith for whatever reason. They possibly locked themselves out of their car or home. So they look a local locksmith for their area and call them up. Often they are quoted a low price over the phone.
But once the locksmith arrives it turns into another story. The price then becomes much higher than what was quoted over the phone. The scenario continues with the possibly fake locksmith tacking on additional service fees and charges. Then some of these locksmiths aren’t even trained locksmiths, they just sloppily drill open locks or use some other destructive method that does not fall under the category of locksmithing.
Naturally the customer wants to file a complaint with the company, but often the client cannot find the company. The address for the company turns out to be a closed down restaurant, an empty lot, or some other unrelated active business.
The phone books and internet search results are full of these fake companies that most likely aren’t even in the state they advertise for.
This problem is well known to real locksmiths, but there are no real laws against this deceptive false advertising. As well as the fact that not all states require that a locksmith be licensed. But I believe this problem has influenced more states to see why they should have a licensing system for locksmiths.