acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

Scammers Put Fake QR Codes on Parking Meters to Intercept Payments


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
Image from the City of Austin's warning to ignore QR code stickers on parking meters.

Austin parking division manager Jason Redfern said, "We don't use QR codes at all for this very reason, because they are easy to fake or place on the devices."

Credit: City of Austin

Parking enforcement officers recently found fake quick response (QR) code stickers on pay stations in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, TX, used to trick people into paying scammers.

San Antonio police warned the public on Dec. 20, saying "people attempting to pay for parking using those QR codes may have been directed to a fraudulent Website and submitted payment to a fraudulent vendor."

The bogus codes reportedly routed people to a "Quick Pay Parking" site at the now-offline domain passportlab.xyz, and Austin parking division manager Jason Redfern said the city does not use QR codes because they are easy to counterfeit.

KXAN reported Austin officials checked the city's approximately 900 parking pay stations, and found fake QR codes on 29 meters.

From Ars Technica
View Full Article

 

Abstracts Copyright © 2022 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account