Scammers in several major Texas cities are placing fake QR codes on parking meters to trick people into paying scammers. Parking staff recently discovered fraudulent QR code stickers at toll stations in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.
The San Antonio police alerted the public to the scam on December 20, stating that “People trying to pay for parking with these QR codes may have been redirected to a fraudulent website and sent payment to a fraudulent merchant.”Similar scams were then discovered in Austin and Houston.
The Austin Department of Transportation began checking its own meters after the city of San Antonio “reported a QR code scam in late December with over 100 toll stations pasted with fraudulent codes,”Fox 7 Austin reported last week. Austin officials checked about 900 parking toll stations in the city and found fraudulent QR codes at 29 of them, according to a KXAN article.
Fake QR codes were reported to have directed people to the Fast Pay Parking website at the domain passportlab.xyz, which is currently down. It is not clear how many people – if any – were tricked into paying the scammers.
City does not use QR codes – they are too easy to fake
“We don’t use QR codes at all for this very reason, because they are easy to fake or put on devices,” Jason Redfern, Austin parking department manager, told KXAN. “And we’ve heard from industry leaders that it’s possible.”Austin accepts payments directly at the meter with coins or credit, or using the Park ATX mobile payment app.
The city of Austin said in a press release that they “continue to inspect over 900 city payment stations to ensure no additional QR codes are being used.”Austin urged people to call 911 if they see someone without a city employee badge tampering with the cash register. “Any person who believes they have been the victim of a credit card hack due to recent parking meter payments should file a police report and notify their card issuer immediately,”the city also said.
Houston officials found five counters with fake QR codes and removed the stickers, according to KPRC 2. Like Austin, Houston doesn’t use QR codes on parking meters, but does offer a payment app.
While the scam appears to have been centered in Texas, it could have replicated anywhere. If you see a QR code on a parking meter, ignore it and make sure you pay directly to the city.