Police warn: Why you can t trust every QR code
QR codes have been known to everyone since the corona pandemic at the latest. This allows you to prove your vaccination status in a corresponding app. Such QR codes have been around for a long time in our everyday life, but also in many other places, and are primarily intended to make our lives easier. Fraudsters are currently taking advantage of this to steal money. The police have discovered a clever scam.
Police warn: Wrong QR codes in circulation
A QR code is mostly used to send people to a website. The link does not have to be typed in, but is packaged as a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone and the corresponding app. This makes it much easier to get to where you want to go. Service providers also use QR codes to bring their customers to payment pages. This is also the case with the city of Austin in the USA, which has put QR codes on parking meters so that people can pay for their parking ticket directly online. That has now been exploited, the police say (source: Austin Police Department).
Fraudsters simply stuck over the QR codes on the parking meters . The people who paid for their parking ticket then sent the money to the scammers via a fake website and not to the actual owners of the parking spaces. Depending on the number of parking spaces, a lot of money can come together if the fake QR codes and website are not immediately noticed.
Fraud threatens on the phone too:
How can you protect yourself?
Basically, it's very simple. If you have scanned a QR code, the URL is displayed in the browser before it is opened . If this does not match the provider or the company where you actually want to go, you should not open the website. You know which QR code you have scanned and often the website is still there. The QR code is only ever displayed as an additional option. One should pay attention to this, especially when it comes to payment processes.
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