12th November 2026
There have been more reports from across the country of scams related to locksmiths. Consumers who have phoned locksmiths in an emergency have been quoted one price, then charged hundreds of pounds more once the work has been completed.
This week the story of one student who was intimidated into paying £500 to an emergency locksmith - 5 times more than he was quoted - featured on STV News. Read more and watch the video here: news.stv.tv/west-central/i-was-intimidated-into-paying-500-locksmith-charge.
The student returned home from a night out to find out that his door lock didn't work. He searched for an emergency locksmith online and phoned the first number he found. He was told the callout fee would be £50 and the total price of the job would be no more than £100.
However, when the locksmith arrived, he drilled the lock out then told the student the callout fee had risen to £80 and that the work was going to cost around £500. Although the student questioned the price, he ultimately felt intimidated by the locksmith, who was in his home, and paid the full amount.
How to Avoid
If you need a locksmith in an emergency, be wary of online adverts which appear near the top of search results, particularly if they are sponsored and/or offer unrealistically low prices.
Find locksmiths who have been vetted through a national or local authority approved trader scheme at approvedtrader.scot
You can find locksmiths who are licensed and approved by the Master Locksmiths' Association (MLA) at www.locksmiths.co.uk/
The MLA have some useful tips to avoid rogue locksmiths:
Be wary of adverts on search engines (especially those that say 'sponsored') that promise unrealistically cheap prices, such as £39. The MLA has a locksmith price guide that gives an idea of typical prices for common jobs: www.locksmiths.co.uk/faq/locksmith-prices
Many rogue locksmiths make false claims about their accreditations or say they are 'police-approved'. The police are unlikely to approve or recommend individual locksmiths.
Before using a locksmith check that they have been vetted and approved either via approvedtrader.scot or www.locksmiths.co.uk
Be suspicious if a locksmith is very vague about price details over the phone or if they keep mentioning unrealistically low rates
Be suspicious if the caller cannot give you the name of the locksmith who will be carrying out the work. This may indicate that it is a call centre and that they are subcontracting work
Where possible pay for services using a credit card rather than debit card or bank transfer. This will offer you more protection if something goes wrong.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s independent advertising regulator, operates a Scam Ad Alert system, which allows anyone to quickly and easily report suspicious paid-for ads online. You can use this online form to report online scam ads in paid-for space, including ads on newspaper websites, paid-for search engine ads or ads appearing on social media.
We recently released an episode of our ScamShare podcast, in which we speak to the Master Locksmiths Association (MLA) about how to recognise and avoid emergency locksmith scams - you can listen to the podcast online here or on our Spotify channel - search for Scam Share.
Find out more
Advice from the MLA on avoiding rogue locksmiths: www.locksmiths.co.uk/faq/how-to-spot-rogue-locksmith/
BBC This Morning Live feature on rogue locksmiths: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6lG2dx2XhE
Report an online scam ad to the ASA: https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint/report-an-online-scam-ad.html