ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (WTHR) – Some Zionsville residents say they called a locksmith and somebody came out.
But who was it?
Some told us they suspect they’ve been scammed.
The key to home security is knowing your locksmith, according to contractor Jim Barber of Housewurks of Zionsville.
“Be aware,” Barber said. “These are difficult times out there for a lot of people, trying to scam everybody else.”
Barber said one of his clients needed a lock fixed and called what she thought was a Zionsville-based locksmith.
“It was a 317 area code, so I knew I had the right phone number,” the woman told us by phone Thursday.
She says a locksmith came to her house but the bill was four times what she expected. She got suspicious when the receipt she received lacked information about the company. So she called the local locksmith’s number and the person who answered said they hadn’t dispatched anyone to her.
The woman said the local company told her she’d been scammed, and that it wasn’t the first time it had happened.
“Then I start panicking, thinking this guy has been in my house,” the woman told us. “I asked the gentleman to leave.”
Barber advised the woman that she should now get all of her locks changed “in the event the person who got the numbers and changed the locks might have something going on where he could get into the house later on.”
Pop-a-Lock’s Dave Carrington said he, too, has had problems with someone doing business using his company name and phone number.
“Somehow, phone calls are getting intercepted and rerouted to scammers,” Carrington said. “Unfortunately, we end up getting complaint calls after the fact for work that has been done poorly and very highly priced.”
Last May, 13 Investigates unlocked the secrets of some scams, operations that hurt consumers and legitimate locksmiths. We learned they hijack the identities of local businesses in online ads. One local locksmith told us it has cost him three-fourths of his business.
Source Link: http://www.wthr.com/article/calls-for-locksmith-misdirected-consumers-cry-foul
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