The Locksmith Police.com

Why NOW, Why US? E-mail Arizona Underlying law I need a locksmith / links

6/5/2013 - ABC "The Lookout" does a great job reporting on the scammers. Here are links to YouTube part1 part2

Charley's complaint results in MCI disconnecting over 200 phone#s in Arizona! Charley's Response: Inadequate investigation!

The Locksmith Police*.com
Our war against the "Invasion of the Locksmith Scammers"

We are a group of dedicated locksmiths, consumers, and consumer advocates that believe that the locksmith community and unsuspecting consumers have been victimized far too long by the activities of an international group of criminals who have been scamming locksmith consumers for many years now and the telephone companies are helping them to do it.

It is time to put an end to these ORGANIZED CRIME activities NOW and we need your help to do it. Why NOW, Why US, What can we do?

GAME ON! The WAR has begun!
It has not been announced until now (9/23/2010) that this website is a public service of "Locksmith Charley".
Press Release! - News Flash!

On Tuesday, 9/21/2010, Charles Eastwood, dba Locksmith Charley filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court against 11 companies of alleged locksmith scammers, several telephone companies that support their activities, Google, Yahoo, and Attorney General Terry Goddard.

On Wednesday, 9/22/2010 Judge Mangum issued an order to show cause ordering the locksmith defendants and the telephone company defendants and Goggle to appear in court on October 4, 2010 at 9:30AM to show good cause, if they have any, why the court should not issue a preliminary injunction to effectively shut down more than 400 separate telephone numbers listed to phony addresses by the scammers. If you want to browse through the legal documents and exhibits, CLICK HERE

UPDATE!
Since my last update all of the telephone companies and Google and Yahoo have been dismissed out of the case.

I have filed another Order to Show Cause, requiring the defendants that have appeared thus far, ATLAS, MILLER, MILLENNIUM, COMPLETE, and TRUST to show good cause why the judge should not issue a preliminary injunction, permanent injunction, (to shut off hundreds or thousands of telephone numbers listed to phony addresses) or appoint a receiver to take over their companies.

The court has made a ruling! In our favor! 6/28/2011!

http://thelocksmithpolice.com/exhibits/Legal Documents/PreliminaryInjunction-ISSUED-2011-06-30.pdf

Please help fight - Donations are GREAT, but we also need to get the Government's attention. Please download and fill out a LOCKSMITH PETITION or a CONSUMER VICTIM PETITION and mail it to me ASAP!

For Locksmiths:                                                                     For Consumers:
LOCKSMITH PETITION - WORD FORMAT                    CONSUMER PETITION - WORD FORMAT
LOCKSMITH PETITION - PDF FORMAT                         CONSUMER PETITION - PDF FORMAT

    Please help fight the good fight!

Paypal is unable to explain to me why for whatever reason the donate button works for some people and not for other people.
If you have a pay-pal account you may log into your account and send whatever amount you like to: donate@thelocksmithpolice.com
Paypal requests anyone having difficulties to call them at 888-221-1161 and say "agent" (perhaps repeatedly) in order to get to a real live human.

Checks or Money orders can be sent to:
LOCKSMITH CHARLEY - SPECIAL FUND
PO BOX 40293
MESA AZ 85274

Thanks to everyone!

Please feel free to read donation goals and policy

ALOA UPDATE!

The Associated Locksmiths of America has started the "ALOA LOCKSMITH TASK FORCE" to identify legitimate locksmiths and promote them as well as to identify so-called locksmith scammers, phony locksmiths, ghost locksmiths and have them removed from all search engines. Please donate to ALOA's TASK FORCE at: https://secure.piryx.com/donate/TkuChIQm/Associated-Locksmith-Assciation-of-America/

The Modus Operandi of the criminals impersonating locksmiths (scammers) is in some ways very simple, and in other ways very complicated.
The various factors consistent with all the different companies of scammers operating throughout our nation include:

1. The phone number / address scam aka Saturate Yellow Page and Internet Listings / confuse unsuspecting consumers:
A. The scammers enter a large metropolitan market and contract with various telephone companies to procure large quantities or blocks of telephone numbers.
B. The scammers provide the telephone companies with a "business name" and an "address" to list for each of the telephone numbers that they procure.
     1, The business names may be legitimately filed with an appropriate government agency or they may simply be made up names. Frequently these business names are substantially similar to existing business names so as to confuse consumers.
     2. The addresses provided to the phone companies may be commercial or residential addresses but the common thread among them is that the scammer company has absolutely no physical presence at, nor any legal connection with, any of the addresses. Scammers have been known to favor addresses of Subway Sandwich shops, hotels, apartment buildings, UPS stores, parking lots, vacant lots, and yes, even cemeteries. The use of the many addresses scattered seemingly at random throughout the metropolitan area is calculated to confuse and mislead the consumer into thinking that this "locksmith" is right around the corner from them and will result in a very short response time. An added benefit to the scammers is that once they rip you off, if you go looking for them you can't find them because they're not there!
C. The scammers arrange for calls to all phone numbers under control of "their" company to be routed to a call center, typically in a location far away from the market that they are "serving".
     Once the calls are received these call centers dispatch their minions to the location of the unsuspecting consumer by cell phones.
D. By having literally hundreds to thousands of listings in one metropolitan area their very large "funnel" of phone numbers is once again calculated to catch many more consumer phone calls than the very small funnel of phone numbers operated by established legitimate companies.

2. The phone interaction - the setup for the classic bait and switch.
When the consumer gets through to the call center, no matter what the problem is, the consumer is told something usually along the lines of:
"Its $39 to come out plus labor." or "Its $x* to come out plus labor." * where $x is an unrealistically low service call price
When the customer reasonably asks "OK, how much is the labor?"
The call-taker will usually say "The technician will tell you when they get there...."
A savvy consumer won't accept that and will press them for a specific response,
and after such pressure the call-taker will say something like "Its usually around $15.00..."

3. Vehicle lockouts - the execution of the classic bait and switch.
When the "technician" arrives, they have been indoctrinated to explain to you...
"Your vehicle is very special, much more difficult, needs special tools, etc..."
and then the bad news, customer expecting to pay around $55 is suddenly told
"...so it will be <pick an amount from $85 to $150> to open your car. By this
time, the consumer has waited a very long time, sometimes in very hot or cold weather
and is worn down so they give up the money just so they can be on their way.
Most consumers won't file a complaint.....

4. Residential / commercial lockouts - adding destruction to the execution of the classic bait and switch.
When the scammer's "technician" arrives, they have been indoctrinated to explain to you...
"Your locks are very special high security locks.... I can't pick the, I am
going to have to drill them and then replace them...." and then the bad news,
the customer who was expecting to pay around $55 is, after witnessing the destruction
of their locks and the installation of very cheap, usually imported knock-off locks is
presented with the bill - usually several hundred dollars! By this
time, the consumer has waited a very long time, sometimes in very hot or cold weather
and is worn down. The customer is usually feeling that "well since this guy came out
and did this work, I HAVE to pay him.... so they give up the money frequently after
suffering intimidation tactics from the "technician".
Most consumers won't file a complaint.....

If you feel that you have been victimized by criminals masquerading as locksmiths, please help us!
CONSUMERS - CLICK HERE TO REPORT ISSUES
If you are a consumer who has been victimized by these SCAMMERS - your stories are absolutely critical to our successful prosecution of these SCAMMERS and may prove to be the hinge pin that would make the difference of whether we're able to secure injunctions prohibiting these SCAMMER "so-called locksmith" companies from continuing to do business...

If you are a locksmith with a story to tell, please CLICK HERE to send e-mail - we definitely want your information. If your story includes scammers corrupting google listings about your company we want to go after Google too.

If you are involved in the telecommunications industry, your cooperation and information you may have will be VITAL to our endeavor.

Please CLICK HERE to send e-mail to provide your contact information so that we can get in touch with you!

The 1.5-2 years that I have been investigating so far has led me to the conclusion that the SCAMMERS are buying hundreds to thousands of telephone numbers from the LECs and CLECs and being given the ability to provide a "company name" and "address" to be listed to each of these addresses within the internal directory database of the specific LEC or CLEC in question.

As I understand the existent possibilities regarding information flow is that either (A) each LEC and CLEC provides their internal directory database information to a central information depository from which the various and sundry printed directory publishers and internet information providers procure their information or (b) each LEC and CLEC formulate separate agreements with different paper book and internet information companies.

The Bottom line is that these LEC and CLEC companies, in their "trusted" positions) as "Public Utilities", whether they agree or not, are saddled with a FIDUCIARY DUTY to ensure that ALL information that they collect from their customers with their intent that said information would ultimately be distributed to the masses via printed directories or internet information, or whatever, THAT INFORMATION NEEDS TO BE FACTUALLY CORRECT!.

The underlying law in Arizona needs some improvement, but what is there now will work. Here is an analysis and suggested improvements. There is also a great deal of information on federal consumer law here as well.

I heard of this concept only a few days ago when I was visiting the Surprise Arizona police department the other day. I have felt this sense of duty for many years. Indeed, as I was growing up some of my favorite TV shows were "ADAM-12", "EMERGENCY", and "DRAGNET". During my many years living in California, I stopped and did citizens arrest on several drunken drivers and was instrumental in foiling the escape of an armed robber who robbed a 7-11 store that my very dear friend worked at. For the past 1.5 years it seems only natural that given the high level of DIS-interest in the criminal activities of the 6 or more "companies" of criminal scammers pretending to be locksmiths by law enforcement officials¹ that I take matters into my own hands and "fight the good fight" on my own.

Update: 2010-09-29: Sarah and the crew of Channel 5 news did a great job reporting on my legal action and some more consumer fraud - $180 to unlock a car, Gee...
see it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnR3HcR6iIQ

*DISCLAIMER: Despite the name that we have chosen for this website, "TheLocksmithPolice.com" this website is privately owned and operated and is not supported by or affiliated with any law enforcement agency of the US Government, The Government of any state, municipality, county, or parish established under the laws of the US or any state or territory thereof. This disclaimer does not purport itself to mean that individuals or companies that we deem to be operating locksmith businesses in a rogue, illegal, or unethical way may feel safe. Indeed, (in the words of Harrison Ford in his role as president) this is their time to "Be Afraid!"

We recognize that there are many LEGITIMATE locksmiths of Israeli or Jewish heritage - We embrace those individuals as friends and respect them.
This website is dedicated to the extermination of several companies that are operating in an illegal, immoral, and unethical manner throughout the United States - Dependable Locksmith being a prime example. We know that the LEGITIMATE Israeli and Jewish locksmiths dislike these criminal scammers as much as we do, and perhaps more.
This website - and our endeavor - is very specifically NOT anti-Semitic.

Footnotes:
1. With the exception of the Tucson office of the Arizona Attorney General's office (Taren Ellis - Honorable Mention!) who has apparently successfully sued Dependable Locks (YAY!), law enforcement agencies generally have demonstrated time and time again little to no interest in combating this problem. I have been turned away by the Arizona Attorney General's office here in Phoenix, The Maricopa County Attorney's office (Andrew Thomas's office refused or neglected to ever get back to me with regard to my request for a meeting with him or someone in the executive portion of that office) (Rick Romley's underlings similarly refused to even have a conversation with me in the week of 5/1-5/7/2010). At one point I called Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office and explained that I could give him a bunch of Israeli guys working in the country illegally that he could arrest and throw up in the face of his Hispanic detractors and say "I am an equal-opportunity enforcer of the Immigration laws - His staff summarily hung up on me. I did have a meeting with a Special Agent of the FBI who repeatedly promised to hook me up with a meeting with a local detective (he never specified an agency) but that meeting was never set up and therefore never occurred. I also tried to set up a meeting to discuss the Federal implications of this nationwide scam activity with the Phoenix office of the US ATTORNEY, but they too threw up a brick wall that was approximately equivalent to shitting in my face.

Update: A couple weeks ago I was able to corner AG Goddard at a public event and I gave him a 100 page document showing the "YAHOO / GOOGLE" REVIEWER SCAM click here for an explanation...

Update 9/24/2010: Prior to filing the action I made diligent attempt to contact AG Goddard personally to notify him that he is a defendant in this action and that I will be seeking court orders requiring him to take over the criminal and consumer fraud aspects of this case. I was very much hoping that AG Goddard would "do the right thing" and offer to take my work and take immediate action on it. Instead - the unsigned anonymous response from Mr. Goddard's office was:

From: "AgInfo AgInfo" <AgInfo@azag.gov>
To: Charley@LocksmithCharley.com
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:39:30 -0700
Subject: AZAG Inquiry

Dear Mr. Eastwood:

Thank you for your recent email message to the Arizona Attorney General's Office.

We understand you have been in contact with multiple personnel from this Office regarding the matters you have identified. Our Office is aware of your concerns, but we are not able to assist you at this time.

Sincerely,

Office of Constituent Services
Arizona Attorney General's Office
www.azag.gov

Yo, Terry, You are NOT getting MY vote!

Apparently you're not getting their votes

either since YOU LOST! Go JAN BREWER!

Mr. HORNE, Please help us when you

take office!

CA B&P §6980.64 COMPLIANCE
Phone# 800-313-5397