Only 5% of locksmiths listed in 3 Central Florida phone directories are legitimate, 15% for a 1-page Internet search

Dell Sterling, a Colorado locksmith, was interviewed for a story on locksmith fraud by Denver Post reporter Anthony Bowe. According to Sterling, up to three-fourths of the locksmith listings in phone and internet directories are from a handful of shady firms operating under dozens of names and phone numbers.

That means he believes 25 percent of locksmiths listed are legitimate. I think his number is high especially when he’s including Internet listings. But not having seen any of Denver’s phone directories, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

I have, however, seen the three phone directories in Central Florida published by Embarq, AT&T and Verizon. With a total 1791 locksmith listings and only 88 legitimately registered locksmiths, that’s a rate of 5 percent. However, since all the legitimate locksmiths are listed at least once in each directory that would bring the total rate to about 15 percent, if you look in all 3 books and who’s going to do that?

As for the Internet, I checked every link on the first page of a Google search for a locksmith in my own city of Altamonte Springs. There are 31 ads and listings – only 5 locksmith listings are legitimately registered in Seminole or Orange County. So that breaks down to about a rate of 16 percent for the Internet.

My survey broke down as follows for the 31 ads/listings:

Legit - Position of ads/listing on 1st page of Google search
0 --- Top 3 Featured Google ads were all bogus or call centers
1 --- Only 1 of the 10 map ads (A-J) lead to a legitimate locksmith
2 --- Only 2 of the 8 side ads were legit, plus there was 1 school, 1 directory
2 --- 10 listings: 2 legitimate locksmiths, 4 directories, 4 bogus locksmiths

The 4 directory ads led to the same process over again - bogus and legitimate locksmith ads and listings together. Will discuss the directories in another blog.

Two of the questionable locksmith ads actually had local Altamonte addresses, so my husband and I went on a field trip. The first locksmith had the name 24 Hour 1 Day Altamonte Springs Emergency Locksmith. (Geez, don’t think you could squeeze in any more keywords into that name.) Their address on Miller Drive was actually a restaurant supply company that had never heard of them.

The second locksmith, Mack’s Locksmith Service, was legit until December when his state and county registrations ran out. We called the owner Bob Jacko when we couldn't find his street location. He told us it was the address for his storage unit. Jacko is legally registered in Orange County as Bob Jacko Locksmith in Apopka. Since Seminole County is a reciprocal county, Jacko's Orange County registration is perfectly legal.

“Locksmith” uses bogus job ad as new marketing strategy

It’s always bothered me when legitimate locksmiths use several bogus names and websites to draw people to their service. I use the online name A-Florida-Locksmith.com on our website but say it right on the top of my site that it’s our online name. I list the legal name of our business as well (Martin Security Group, Inc.), however, I haven’t created additional websites with bogus names and had them point to my website. I haven’t used bogus marketing techniques to push my site up to page one of a Google search.

Locksmithmiami, however, has a new marketing strategy – to post the same message of a bogus job on hundreds of forum, blog and guest book websites. I’ve tracked the same message on forums for gambling, adoption, young entrepreneurs, Buddhist, anarchist, gaming, appliance repair, writers, tech forums for both MAC’s and PC’s, British, website design and even job forums.

He’s also posted his bogus ad on Korean, French, Spanish and Vietnamese websites – in English, of course. It’s even on The Ethical Hacker forum. Not that I noticed that one before, but if you are going to post a bogus ad at least don’t post it on a site with the word “ethical” in the name. On every profile he lists himself as male and in the USA, except a soul sisters website, then he’s changed his gender - I guess to fit in.

Almost all forums were created within the last few days and most said that he was “offline,” except for one site that said he was online. I was tempted to jump in and ask him a question, but the forum title had such a perverse name I didn’t even want to click on it for fear I’d start getting Google ads flashed on every site that I go on including my homepage. It is possible to read the Google search listing summaries without clicking into the link to see where he’s been.

The forums administrators are beginning to catch on to his trick. I saw where he was banned from some forums including the pornography and sex addict support group - banned permanently, mind you. (so says the Google listing –didn’t go in). Boy, now he’s really in trouble.

Yuck! Who would want to answer a job ad from this guy? Would you want this guy coming to your home rekeying your locks? Not me.

Well, it looks like it’s almost over. He’s been reported several times to Stop Forum Spam with his one user name, his IP address (that’s his computer info) and his multiple email addresses. To see that, here’s the link:

http://www.stopforumspam.com/search?q=locksmithmiami

I did track down his actual website and called both the Miami phone and fax numbers listed and did not get an answer. Now his 866 number is forwarded to another Ft. Lauderdale, FL cell phone that’s not answered.