Urgent warning to drivers over QR code rip off at car parks – and simple trick to avoid losing money

DRIVERS have been warned to ‘keep their eyes peeled’ over a new car parking scam that aims to steal card details and cash.

Scammers have exploited the QR codes that have become prevalent in car parks as a form of payment, in a bid to fleece unsuspecting victims.

Facebook / David CogingFraudsters have been taking advantage of the popularity of QR codes in recent months[/caption]

Facebook user David Coging, of Peterborough, UK, blasted the scam on the social media platform, in an attempt to warn others.

“THEY’RE AT IT AGAIN…! This time, Car Park machines,” he wrote in a Facebook post, which has since gone viral.

“You know those nice little QR codes that you can scan with your phone to make a payment?

“[Scammers’] latest brainwave is to stick their own little QR code over the real one they can nick all sorts of info about you and your card.”

Members of the public could easily scan the fake code thinking it’s real and risk sending money straight into a scammers pocket – as well as revealing important information.

Fraudsters have been taking advantage of the popularity of QR codes in recent months.

Just two weeks ago American comedian Darryl Lynn Hughley flagged a similar QR code scam to his Instagram followers.

Except this time, it was a parking spot in Atlanta, Georgia – a far stretch from the UK.

The fake QR code was stuck directly on top of a real QR code that car owners were supposed to scan to pay for their time in a parking spot.

Former Ferry Meadows Railway owner Coging offered a nifty trick for fellow car owners: a cheeky pick and a peel.

“A quick peel to check is the way to thwart ’em,” he wrote.

“Keep your eyes peeled.”

In response to Coging’s Facebook post, when onlooker commented: “There is a scam for everything it seems.”

Another wrote: “This what happens in a cashless world. We open ourselves up to even more scams.”

While the ‘peel check’ will work in car parks, or anywhere the QR code is printed on – instead of simply being a sticker – it won’t work everywhere.

A global trend

People must be increasingly wary of QR code scams, in any establishment, all around the world.

In May, a woman in Singapore was reportedly swindled out of $20,000 after using a QR code that had been set up by cyber criminals.

The woman, in her 60s, scanned a QR code she saw on a sticker in a bubble tea shop to fill out a survey for a “free cup of milk tea”.

To complete the survey, the QR code directed her to install a third-party app on her Android phone.

The bogus survey app she downloaded then snatched an eyewatering $20,000 from her bank account while she slept, local media Straits Times first reported.

It’s important to check with the establishment that a QR code is legitimate, and to never download any third party apps unless you know for sure it is safe.

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