Since the advent of the Internet there have been many new and innovative ways for people to nonsense scam from extremely ignorant citizens. Latest scam tactics is taking over our parking meter system. The scammers in Southern California are putting their own QR codes on top of the legal QR codes used by cities to allow people pay for parking in a clever new method of stealing people’s credit card information. Some areas use mobile phones Payment system for paid parking through companies like PayByPhone and ParkMobile, but if you’re going to pay for parking via QR code, there are ways to spot a Cheat.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says Americans lost more than $150 million to QR code fraud last year. According to ABC7 Los Angeles, The city of Redondo Beach said it found nearly 150 fake QR codes posted on parking meters along the Esplanade and Riviera Village areas. These fake codes were posted next to real parking payment labels, making them extremely convincing. The fake QR codes would take users to websites with URLs that were alarmingly similar to the real URLs used to pay, with one example sending people to “poybyphone” instead of “paybyphone.” ABC7 reported,
Vance Ingmanson was in San Clemente when he saw a sign with a QR code and website to pay for parking.
“We typed in the URL. The URL — the first five URLs on Google search were fake,” he recalled. “It was a scam. It had a logo. It said ‘passport parking.’”
Ingmanson was trying to park his car. A few minutes later, he knew something was wrong.
“I entered my credit card number,” he said.[My wife’s] The credit card company, about two minutes after I entered the information, called her and said ‘We have unauthorized charges here.
To avoid getting scammed, the FTC says that if you use a QR code to pay for parking, double-check the URL of any website the code sends you to. If you notice any transposed letters, misspelled letters, or typos, do not enter any credit card information. Be wary of this scam and be cautious when entering your credit card information online. This makes me feel better about my own irrational hatred of paying for parking. You can almost always find a free parking spot near your destination, saving a few bucks, and now you can protect your credit card information from being stolen.
