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I argued with a locksmith recently who said my front door lock was "unpickable" and the only solution would be drilling it and replacing the lock. I told him I'd pay him 70 dollars cash to pick it or he could leave and I'd pay nothing. He picked it in a minute or less and that was that.



I think you handled it well.

Since he acted like a reasonable (rational) person he probably wasn't a scammer, but it's worth mentioning that there are locksmith scammers who take advantage of people in high-need situations to charge them exorbitant amounts for "unpickable" locks that always need to be drilled.

The Reply All podcast covered this a few years ago with "Very Quickly to the Drill" [1]

[1] https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2ho87


What would a scammer do in that situation?


Probably charge a lot more and be belligerent/pushy about it.




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