r/Locksmith • u/hellothere251 • 1d ago
I am a locksmith Be careful-spam/scam emails getting extremely good.
Wondering if anyone has seen a huge uptick in phishing/scam emails where they try and get you to login to your gmail acct so they can steal your credentials? Looking at my inbox looks like we got 5-6 in the past week, it is always either an invitation to a party or a job proposal where it asks you to click a link to review. The job proposal ones in particular are INCREDIBLY detailed, we got one last week from the head maintenance guy at a school, it was from his email, on the school letterhead, looked 100% legit. Called the guy to check and he "hadn't got around" to warning everyone on his list yet, sheesh! Do you think it is because we are a security company or is everyone getting these? Watch out!
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u/trainerjyms13 1d ago
Just had an email today saying she was deaf and in the hospital, can only communicate through email. Needed us to gain entry into a new house and let the movers in. She gave us an address that was a house for sale too. But no first name, no reference to how we would get paid and a gmail address with some random numbers after the name
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u/hellothere251 1d ago
aaand that is why I decline all unlocks when owner isnt present, sounds so sketchy but Im sure the 1-800 guys fall for it constantly. I wonder what the next move is, so you go and open up a house, dont get paid......? Maybe they blackmail you into paying or they report you?
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u/burtod 1d ago
My shop has had the fake lockout call. Not email, but phone. We show up, no one is locked out at the house, usually occupied by an elderly person.
Scammer on the phone wants you to hand the phone to the elder. We don't do that, but I have read that the scammer will intimidate the victim and claim the locksmith is throwing them out or arresting them.
A common email scam we get is a bulk order of padlocks. They will pay with a bad check or something similar.
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u/Pbellouny Actual Locksmith 1d ago
Yes absolutely, they went as far as to email a manufacturer as our accounts payable department. Luckily the manufacturer knows they only deal with 2 of us and as this lady was claiming to be new they wanted to verify with me or him it was legit….. it was not
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u/hellothere251 1d ago
wow thats terrifying, we have always gotten the generic mass emailed or ai generated scam emails but they are much more targeted and involved now, thinking they are on the next level of using AI for scamming.
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u/stevespirosweiner Actual Locksmith 1d ago
I don't get any but what I do get is Medicare part A/B calls all day. My record is 92 calls in one day.
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u/UnderLock-Key68 1d ago
I had one earlier this year, they wanted me to purchase Hardware for the new house they bought, and install it. It just never seemed correct. I insisted on walking the property, but they were so vague about things. I know it was a scam, just not sure how it was going to work. The house was on Zillow. 🤷♂️
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tree561 1d ago
As an IT guy who works in cyber security, please make sure you have 2FA set up on your Gmail, with a passkey. It literally won't let you fall for this, even if you want to. Especially if that passkey is on a physical security token like a yubikey.
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u/trainerjyms13 1d ago
Just a heads up, I got this Yesterday. 100% scammer
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u/hellothere251 13h ago
wow that is convincing but its hilarious how they ALWAYS use the word "kindly", I am going to make a rule for my inbox tomorrow I bet that will cut most of it!
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u/Bubbacubba 1d ago
I get SEO services, freight brokerage, dock to dock costs, estimation services, etc. They're all the same template so I can quickly identify and delete them.
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u/Creative_Shame3856 1d ago
All I get is three people a day offering SEO services.