The City of Kelowna, B.C., says 75 parking meters were recently tagged with fraudulent QR codes.
Dave Duncan, Kelowna’s parking services manager, said the decals were placed directly over the tap reader on the machines.
City officials say the QR codes were not authorized by either the municipality or its mobile payment provider, PayByPhone. While the stickers appeared to advertise a convenient way to pay for parking, they actually redirected drivers to a fraudulent site.
“We don’t use QR codes on our pay stations or anywhere near our equipment because we’ve had the occasional issue of QR codes being placed on our metres,” Duncan said.
The decals were reported on Feb. 12 by city staff and within hours city crews had removed all 75. So far, officials believe no one fell victim to the scam. Because the decals featured what appeared to be a copy of the PayByPhone logo, the city notified the company, which was able to have the fake website blocked.
Kelowna is not alone. A similar QR code scam was recently discovered in parking lots in Whistler, and last August police in Penticton warned the public about the same scheme.
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“We see this not just with parking meters but other places QR codes are used. It’s often an opportunity for scammers to send you somewhere else versus the actual official space,” said Neesha Hothi with the Better Business Bureau.
The Better Business Bureau recommends avoiding QR codes on public equipment when possible or paying with cash, when available, as another way to reduce risk.
“Ensure that you go specifically to their home app if you’ve got that app on your phone, or if they have a website you can go to directly,” Hothi said.
Duncan says city security cameras captured three people applying the decals around 7 p.m. on Feb. 11. The RCMP have not confirmed whether any arrests have been made.
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