A parking ticket QR scam that is now doing the rounds in Ireland has seen people robbed of thousands of pounds in the UK.
Yesterday, Fingal County Council warned people to beware of the scam – posting a video of a fake QR code sticker being peeled off a Pay & Display machine.
The council said the 'quishing' scam sees fraudsters sticking fake QR codes directly on top of the legitimate codes – with users who follow them being transferred to a fraudulent website that steals their bank details.
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On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Irish Independent Tech Editor Adrian Weckler said the scam has been running in the UK for several years now.
“When you approach a parking meter, sometimes you will see one of these square QR codes and sometimes they’re legitimate," Mr Weckler said.
"What scammers are doing is putting a scam one - printing one off on a sticker and overlaying it onto the original one,” he said.
“Then, when you use your phone, you think it's taking you through to the legitimate payment option [but] it’s taking you through to a scam site and it’s just going to rob your credit card."
Be careful everyone, this happened in greystones. The lady's daughter was scammed out of €1000, using a QR code that she scanned to pay for parking. pic.twitter.com/oGlb4Zk2Xl
— lozzyloz (@lozzylozboz) October 13, 2024
Mr Weckler said the UK has recorded around 1,200 instances of the scam in the last three years.
He recalled one instance of a woman being robbed of £13,000 (€15,600) through a fake QR code in a railway station.
"We don’t have examples of anything that bad yet in Ireland but we do have examples of Fingal County Council putting up a video showing a real-life scam sticker and them removing one,” he said.
“We also have a councillor from Navan who did the same thing," Mr Weckler said.
"The message really is that if you’re using a QR code to pay for your parking, have a good look before paying."
The scam QR codes have been reported to An Garda Síochána, but motorists are being advised to avoid any QR codes or bar codes that appear on Pay and Display machines.
Instead, motorists should download the genuine parking app, Payzone, and use the app directly from their phone's app store.
Dublin Parking Meter 26/11/2021 Photograph: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie
