Part of the inspiration for the Marketing Arm of the local chapter is the growing prevalence of Phony Locksmiths and Copycats throughout the country and in our region.
In the case of the Phonies - these are businesses (often national) who advertise services that they do not have the expertise to deliver; nor do they have the intention to deliver.
Minnesota has no specific locksmith licensing laws and the victims of the scams do not report the violations to the proper authorities so it is actually nigh impossible to mete out any sort of justice against the Phonies.
The Copycats are out-of-town concerns who deliberately register their business under a name that is very similar to that of an established lock company. Sometimes they even co-opt the address of a fast-food restaurant or gas station nearby to make it appear that they really are that company, or that they are located very nearby.
This is a very difficult situation because as long as the business name is not identical, what they are doing may not actually be illegal. Especially if their 'local address' is a PO box or UPS store.
Copycats may also hijack any internet listing, rerouting the search engine results to their own websites. This is not as difficult to address as the former situation - it may be resolved by password protecting your listing with the major search engines.
The important thing to remember is that there are more properly trained, Professional Locksmiths in this country than there are Phonies and Copycats by a factor of at least 100.
We have the advantage of numbers and integrity; this should not be that hard. Right now an handful of scam artists are damaging the reputation of every professional locksmith in the country and we've only got a handful of professionals giving 110% to try to pull our entire industry out of the mud.
Get involved: Join ALOA, participate in your local chapter, particpate in grassroots campaigns like Legal Locksmith, write an article, tell a friend, link your websites.
