Wow, this is a serious scam and it involves the intersection of real and virtual worlds. It’s from the end of last year…
The story comes from a few cities in Texas where scammers have been putting fake QR codes on parking meters to trick people into paying them. Specifically, parking enforcement officers have found stickers with these fraudulent QR codes in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.
The police of San Antonio warned the public of the scam on December 20, saying that “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.” Afterward, similar scams were found in Austin and Houston.
The Austin Transportation Department started examining their own meters after over 100 pay stations were stickered with fraudulent codes in San Antonio. And, unsurprisingly, they’ve found a bunch of “affected” parking stations – 29 to be more precise.
The fake QR code directed to a “Quick Pay Parking” website at the domain passportlab.xyz, which is no longer accessible. It is, however, unclear how many people were tricked into paying the fraudsters.
Most cities don’t use QR codes for parking payments, “because they are easy to fake or place on the devices,” according to Austin parking division manager Jason Redfern. “And we heard from industry leaders that this would be a possibility.”
Instead, Austin accepts payments directly at the meter with coins or credit or with the Park ATX mobile payment app.
Austin city officials said that they are “continuing to inspect the City’s more than 900 pay stations to ensure there are no additional QR codes in use.” They also invited people to call 911 if they see someone without a city employee badge tampering with a pay station.
“Any person who believes they were a victim of a credit card breach due to recent parking meter payments should file a police report and notify their card issuer immediately,” the city said.
Finally, in Houston, officials found five meters with fake QR code stickers and removed them. Like Austin, Houston does not use QR codes on parking meters but does offer a payment app.
It is important to note that this kind of scam could be repeated anywhere. So if you see a QR code on a parking meter, just ignore it and find another way to pay for parking (cash, credit/debit card or with the official mobile app).