Informational Article

Locksmith Fights Cyber Squatter
By Lisa Bernard-Kuhn with permission

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Dave Sohngen thought he was taking all the right steps to make sure potential customers could quickly reach his locksmith and alarm shop, Mr. Lock Locksmiths.

Sohngen pays for listings in local phone books and directories. He's registered with Google Maps. And he maintains an updated, well-optimized Web site, www.mrlockandalarms.com, which does decently enough to be picked up by most top search engines.

But over the past six months Sohngen says the integrity and reputation he's worked three decades to build for his 11-employee business has been significantly compromised.

Sohngen says Mr. Lock's online identity has been hijacked by an elusive operator that dupes unknowing customers into believing they're dealing with Mr. Lock - then charges exorbitant fees for substandard work.

"It's been an ongoing nightmare," says Sohngen, 52, whose small storefront business has been located at the same address, 2061 Beechmont Ave., since he opened 30 years ago.

The Better Business Bureau and the national trade group Associated Locksmiths of America began alerting consumers in 2006 of a nationwide scam in which slippery operators flood local markets with multiple company names, listings and false addresses that make the operation seem like a legitimate neighborhood business.

Consumers are quoted a reasonable price over the phone but when the locksmith arrives - typically in an unmarked vehicle - he demands significantly more money than originally quoted. The work is usually sub par and often the clients are charged for unnecessary services, according to the BBB.

And just as the consumer scam has spread rapidly, the number of businesses reporting compromised identities is growing, says Tim McMullen, a legislative manager with the national locksmiths association.

"There are thousands of listings out there, and more than half are not legitimate," he says. "It used to be that they just flooded the phone directories with names and phony addresses. Then they moved to the Web sites. And now they're hijacking legitimate business names and addresses."

In Sohngen's case, potential clients conducting Google searches are led to other companies posing online as Mr. Lock. The imposters supply a link that lists Mr. Lock's Web site, address and phone number, Sohngen says.

But once the link is clicked, the user is taken to a separate nondescript Web site with alternative phone numbers.

"It's been big trouble for us," Sohngen says. "It's been happening over and over again. It's just dishonest."

Most recently, Sohngen says his shop was contacted by a woman who claimed she was overcharged by Mr. Lock. The woman said she paid $400 for a new car key, but the initial quote over the phone by a firm posing as Mr. Lock was below $100.

"She called us after the work was done, because she thought she had called us in the first place," Sohngen says. "We had to explain the whole situation to this woman - that these guys are impersonating us."

Complicating the problem for Mr. Lock is the fact that multiple company names have been used over the past three months claiming Mr. Lock's location as their own, Sohngen says.

"I'm just trying to figure out what options I have," he says. "So far, I'm not getting anywhere."

No calls were returned to The Enquirer from any of the companies using Mr. Lock's address in its online listings. Sohngen said he contacted Google several times about his issues, but has yet to hear back. Officials at Google also did not respond to questions from The Enquirer.

Impersonating others for financial gain is "as old as The Bible," says Peter Swire, a professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law who's internationally recognized as an expert in fields of privacy and cyberspace.

"It sounds like there's some false advertising going on, and there could be some trademark violations under federal trademark law," Swire says of Mr. Lock's problems. "I think a judge would be sympathetic, considering the facts."

Attorneys General in Colorado and North Carolina have won actions this year aimed at protecting consumers by stopping networks of phony locksmiths in their states.

But so far, the Ohio Attorney General's office says it's not formally investigating Mr. Lock's problems.

While the office has the authority to enforce consumer protection laws, the attorney general has little jurisdiction over business-to-business related conflicts.

"The problem we run into is that there's not a transaction that takes place between the two businesses," says Kim Kowalski, a spokeswoman for the office. "Mr. Lock can refer those customers that have complaints to us."

But Sohngen says that so far it's been difficult to get customers to report the incidents they've shared with him.

"We've told several people to do so, but they usually are just ashamed that they made such a big mistake and they just end up moving on," he says. "It's very frustrating."

McMullen says he's still not entirely sure why his industry has been targeted for the schemes.

"I heard that it started out with the florist industry," he said. "We think maybe it moved over to locksmiths because in most states we're unregulated. And, it's mostly a mobile business, which can make it hard to track down someone."

For now, the Associated Locksmiths of America says it's begun lobbying for locksmith licensing programs in every state - hoping the requirements would quell fly-by-night operations. Currently, only 13 states - not including Ohio and Kentucky - have licensing programs.

But Sohngen says he's not so sure a licensing program will cure the problems he's up against.

"Some of the other programs in other states have no teeth to them," he says. "They just charge locksmiths a fee and give them a license, but there's no accountability. That's not something I'm interested in."

As the various locksmith schemes continue to evolve, McMullen says finding solutions on local levels has become the toughest challenge for his trade group.

"We're trying to be very proactive, but I've felt bad that we can't always find a local solution," he says. "Really, education for consumers is probably the best tool we have right now."

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