How to Avoid Locksmith Scams3899125

Recent years have witnessed a sharp increase in locksmith scams. The fraudulent people posing as locksmiths are giving the public as well as legitimate locksmith companies a hard time. The public is suffering because they are being forced to pay unreasonably high charges for locksmith services and the licensed and legitimate locksmith companies are suffering because their business is being stolen by dishonest persons. Most of the cases related to locksmith scams happen when you get locked out of your home, office or vehicle as this is the best chance for scammers to take advantage of your situation and charge you as much as they wish. So shrewd are these swindlers that they use all means to give the impression of a legitimate locksmith company. They are cheating people by showing their presence on Tech giant Google, Yellowbook and so on by paying substantial amount of money to these search media. When people in need of lock smith in Florida go online to search for the same, they get trapped by fraudulent locksmiths who later on prove a disaster for them.

As the locksmith scams are becoming largely rampant, the legitimate companies are fighting against them to curb the dishonest, unethical and unsafe practice. Their fight is both for protecting their business as well as for the welfare of the public who become innocent victims of locksmith frauds. Baldino's Lock & Key Service based in Virginia filed a federal RICO lawsuit against Google. It claimed that Google allows hundreds of unlicensed locksmiths in Virginia advertise on its search engine which is dangerous for the legitimate locksmith companies as well as for the public. The complainant locksmith company sued Google, SuperMedia Sales, Yellowbook, Ziplocal LP and the unlicensed locksmiths who are practicing their services putting allegations of false advertising and racketeering. According to the complaint, Google is well aware of the truth of these illegitimate locksmith companies but is still promoting them because it is getting high revenues from them. The complaint also puts forward that though there are just 150 licensed locksmiths in the State of Maryland, yet Google is publishing over 400 names of fraudulent locksmiths with superficial locations in Virginia. Baldino's Lock & Key Service further accuses Google of not only showing illegitimate locksmiths in search engines but also allowing pictures, reviews, and map locations with pinpoints, trying to give an impression of legitimacy for illegal and fraudulent locksmiths. By doing this, Google is violating its own policy and guidelines as well. The complaint also points out that the purpose of licensing the locksmiths is to ensure the safety and security of the general public who put their faith in them as locksmiths are associated with security services. Google and other defendants as mentioned above are endangering the security and financial well-being of the public by abetting locksmith scams. The unlicensed and fraudulent locksmiths are garnering huge benefits by getting good listings in Google and other ad directories and encroaching on the market share of licensed locksmith companies. The complaint says that such ad listings are in violation of federal racketeering laws. The company seeks compensatory and punitive damages which are yet to be determined by the court. Yet another licensed locksmith company Sandy Springs sues Google for false advertising through a lawsuit filed in a Virginia Federal Court. This company also claims that by allowing fraudulent locksmiths advertise on its search engines, Google is endangering the business of legitimate locksmiths. Burt Kolker-Sandy Springs locksmith told Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik that he is dealing with the issue locally. However Kolker has nothing to do with the lawsuit. Kolker told Petchenik that they are distressed by an increasing number of their customers rushing to them in panic just to know why they are being cheated and overcharged. Petchenik came to know about Sandy Springs’s predicament when a customer lodged a police complaint claiming that someone belonging to Kolker’s company has ripped her off. Kolker accuses Google of publishing ads related to dishonest locksmiths and diverting business away from licensed locksmith companies. Kolker further says that the fraudulent locksmiths in question are not actually locksmiths. They are ill-trained contractors working for a central office. To quote his words “They go through a central dispatch sometimes in New York, Florida, New Jersey, and they’re just dispatched to people who you can’t even contact again.” In response to the lawsuit, Google put a blog post as: “We’ve allocated substantial technical, financial, and human resources to stopping bad advertising practices and protecting users on the web,” Mike Hochberg, director of ads engineering for Google wrote in the blog. “Hundreds of our engineers, policy experts and others have dedicated their careers to this work.” Google removed 350 million “bad ads” from the site in 2013,Hochberg wrote. With licensed and reputed lock smith in Florida companies legally fighting against Google and other search media and fraudulent locksmiths, it seems positive outcomes are on the way. One can hope that soon the deceitful practice of cheating people in need of locksmith services and stealing away the business from licensed locksmiths will come to an end!