A movement currently underway to form an industry alliance is designed to alert both locksmiths and the general public about the sale and use of counterfeit transponder keys for vehicles. According to this group, low cost imported counterfeit transponder keys often violate FCC regulations, may illegally infringe on copyrights and trademarks, may only function for a short period of time or cannot be programmed at all, and may be using copies of proprietary electronic circuit board designs.
A locksmith reader described a parallel occurrence involving electronic security hardware. A nursing home had many patients who did not have the dexterity necessary to open their room doors with a key. The nursing home searched the internet and found inexpensive, imported standalone electronic locks which could be operated with a press button remote. Several dozen of these electronic locks ware purchased and installed by building maintenance staff.
Initially the locks operated very well and served the intended purpose. However, after several months the failure rate began to increase. The off-brand import standalone locks were no longer advertised on the internet and the nursing home was left with broken locks and no replacements. This is when the nursing home contacted the locksmith for assistance.
My internet mail is filled each day with companies from far-off lands who are offering special pricing on every imaginable type of mechanical and electronic hardware. Some domestic manufacturers have taken the bait. A good percentage of locks used on tool boxes and furniture are now using imported locks with unusual key blanks which have no exact key blank replacement available from aftermarket key blank manufacturers.
The industry alliance mentioned above is trying extremely hard to alert the public about the dangers of counterfeit transponder keys. We should try equally hard to alert our customer base about the false savings in purchasing cheap, imported products which lack quality and the availability of parts, service or future replacements.
