Emergency Locksmiths

Local emergency locksmith covering Reading Berkshire being locked out of your home & business or vehicle can be a stressful especially when trying to find a genuine local locksmith in Reading so many websites and numbers pasted all over the internet its hard to find who is local. 

Locksmith scam artists are taking advantage of emergencies to rip off home and auto owners across the UK. Some professional locksmiths even believe the widespread fraud is part of an organized crime operation.

The basic structure of a locksmith scam is simple.

You’re locked out of your car or your home or you urgently need to change the locks on your property for any of a number of reasons — like securing it against previous occupants, or even a divorced spouse.

You look up a listing online or in the phone book and call up the supposed locksmith who subsequently grossly overcharges you for the service. £1,500 or so is not uncommon for a service that generally should cost around £65 to £150.

“Often unlicensed locksmiths use the Internet to advertise very low prices,” says the CFA. “Typically, they disassemble the locks and then demand more than the amount they originally quoted to finish the jobs. Faced with the alarming prospect of not having working locks, consumers are forced to capitulate.”

If the victim refuses to pay, the phony locksmith will often use bullying tactics, threaten to call the police, or refuse to return a credit card that the customer may have handed over at the outset.

Sometimes, too, bogus locksmiths can damage your property in the process of doing a botched job, costing even more to put it right.

Furthermore, unlicensed locksmiths likely will not have undergone the mandatory criminal background checks that licensed professionals do — so victims could actually be giving crooks access to their homes.