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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Hilary Osborne

‘Pay here’: the QR code ‘quishing’ scam targeting drivers

QR code payment
UK’s Action Fraud received 1,386 reports of scams involving QR codes – a small number, but more than double that in the previous year. Photograph: Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images

You park the car and look for somewhere to pay. A large QR code on the machine offers to take you directly to the right website where you put in your card details before going on with your day. Only much later are you hit with the double whammy: money gone from your account, and a fine for not paying the genuine parking company.

The rise in app- and phone-based parking payment has opened a new frontier for fraudsters: quishing – so called because they are phishing attacks that start with a QR code. The fraudsters stick the codes in places where you would expect to see details of how to pay to park. When you scan one, it takes you to a site where you are asked for your payment details – as you would expect when booking parking.

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