Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/28/locksmith-scammer-caught-on-vi.html
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They got me once for $145 I think. Of course, it was during a house move, on a Sunday, when my son helpfully locked the door with the keys inside.
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It’s not so bad. When I needed it, $300 was a small price to pay. I pounded on the window for hours before he got there and let out of my car.
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You need BlondeStar:
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What you did there, see it I do. But your comment also put me in mind of this…
Ah, the free market at work.
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I dont understand how the scammer can perpetrate his scam. If hes quoting $43 before he unlocks your car and you both agree to it, how can he possibly pop up with the $300 quote after he does the work and expect to receive the higher amount?
It’s extortion, plain and simple. “I have your keys; give me money or you don’t get them back.”
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The kid stole the keys out of the motorist’s car. The boss who tricked him into running the scam - I think his call was probably fake and meant to wash his hands, but I also doubt he’s smart enough to run this con on his own - likely told him to get a signature on the invoice right after snatching the keys, so that in the rare case the motorist calls the cops on him, he’s hoping the officer sent won’t know the law and will tell the motorist to pay. But as the locksmith who made the video knows, locksmiths are a fairly regulated industry, and the scam breaks the law.
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That could go very wrong for the scammer
“Here is your $29. Hold on while I take care of the rest” dialing “Hello, police department. I would like to report a car theft in progress. Yes, the address is…”
or worse
Chambers round “We agreed on $29”
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I am torn by the fact that this guy has a “soulpatch”
but is doing the Lords work.
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In someways this is a lot like the carpet cleaning scams of yore. You call up a phone number that purports to be a local brick and mortar store. They quote you a price and you agree. Then they send out the scammer dude, who changes the deal (before or after services rendered) and says, if he even admits there was a lower price, that they didn’t mention other fees, or says the price quoted isn’t binding on him, or what ever.
If he hadn’t stolen the car key (putting him in the clear wrong) he could have even threatened to call the police for theft of services. A determined scammer could try to call holding the key a mechanic’s lien. As Trump has shown, pure BS, if espoused confidently, can get you way further than should be possible.
stolen locksmith valor.
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Calling the police re: theft of services, is highly doubtful the police would respond to that.
I found out long ago in running a small business that calling the police on someone who refuses or does not pay a bill
is they don’t care because it is a civil law issue. Essentially you’d have go to small claims court, get a judgment (ideally you get a garnishing order on their bank account before judgment, which is held in trust by the court), and then try to collect. A court judgement still doesn’t get you the money. Often all that people do is say," I’ll pay when I have money", hence the garnishing order before judgment.
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I agree. But I’ve seen it go the opposite direction on the exact same basis, taking the default position that the victim must pay the demanded amount and settle it in court if they claim a dispute - basically assuming the business owner to be telling the truth by default.
And, all the scammer has to do is give the victim the impression that the cops will side with the scammer. He’s already lying, what’s one more?
Tucson (where I live) seems to be a hotbed for this. I’ve read past stories in which Google returns dozens of company listings for locksmiths, all of which have been SEOed to the top by the one parent company that responds when any of these shells are contacted.
no thanks, I’ll break my own window and replace it instead of paying someone $300 to not break my window.
I wound up having to use Google Street View to try and tell which of the locksmiths in my area was actually a locksmith in my area with a brick and mortar store.
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I think I was scammed by one of these people when trying to get inside my apartment a few years ago. They didn’t bother picking the lock but instead pried the door open with an air bladder, and then used a screwdriver to push the locking mechanism back. It seemed to me a pretty crude way to do it, not something I would expect from a trained professional.
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I can’t imagine how this scam does’t result in regularly getting punched in the mouth. While he seemed like a pretty mellow guy the customer was much bigger than the scrawny little scammer.
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I had to pay a locksmith once, when I locked the doors, with the keys in the ignition. It was worth it though, because it was about to rain, and I had left the windows down.
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oh you
