More than 1000 euros to open a blocked door? This is what some abusive locksmiths can charge, who take advantage of customers’ ignorance to inflate their prices. But sometimes you just need to know a few details to protect yourself from such scams.
100 euros to open a front door that you slammed behind you already seems expensive. Especially when you know that it only takes a few seconds to unblock it using a simple medical X-ray: a gesture within everyone’s reach, provided you know this tip. Obviously, don’t count on a locksmith to reveal it to you! And yet, a professional who charges a hundred euros for such work is not a charlatan. This is in fact the standard rate, that of a trusted person, which includes travel to your home. So when faced with a real crook, the bill can quickly skyrocket.
It must be said that it is easy to be fooled. Unless you are an expert yourself, how can you know precisely the cost of an intervention? Or a part to change? And of course, some take advantage of it, to the point of multiplying the bill by more than ten times. This is particularly what we discover in the report “Home scams… open trap!” published on the Spica Life YouTube channel. A journalist poses as a customer stuck outside his home, with his door slammed and without his keys, in order to compare the prices of two locksmiths: a trusted craftsman, and one whose name is associated with no less than 80 different addresses in the yellow pages.
As expected, the first one charges 100 euros after opening the door using a piece of cardboard: the famous radio trick. The second, on the other hand, announces 90 euros over the phone. But the final cost will be much higher. Once there, the crook explains that the lock is ultra-efficient and that it is impossible to open it with the radio technique. However, it is the same door as for the first locksmith, who succeeded in less than a minute. This is where the scam begins: the craftsman decides that he must force the lock with a hammer and a screwdriver, which will completely damage it.
As a result, it must be replaced with a new one. Each part, especially entry-level, is billed five to six times more than its real price: 300 euros instead of 50 for the cylinder, for example. In the end, the operation cost 1100 euros, more than twelve times the price of 90 euros initially announced over the phone. It is also eleven times more expensive than the intervention of the first locksmith, who had charged 100 euros. In this same report, fraud prevention recommends asking a simple question on the phone, even before welcoming the craftsman to your home. Especially when you found the number on a leaflet in your mailbox for example. This involves asking for the name of the person, or that of their company.
“It’s a reflex for consumers to have. Start by saying ‘by the way, who are you?’ If the person is reluctant to give you their identity, obviously you hang up and you don’t follow up.” explains Axelle, head of a team in charge of abuse concerning home repairs. Increasingly common, these scams were the subject of more than 5,000 complaints in 2024.
