Scammers using QR code stickers on parking meters to get at people's bank accounts
Paying with your smartphone has become commonplace, and scammers are finding new ways to exploit this. A new method on the rise in the Netherlands is sticking QR codes on parking meters, taking users to a spoofed website of the popular parking app EasyPark, where they have to enter their bank or credit card information.
The municipality of The Hague recently removed around 70 fake QR code stickers from parking meters in the Laak, Centrum, Schilderswijk, and Scheveningen districts, Omroep West reports. Reports of these stickers have also come from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Alphen aan den Rijn, and Maastricht.
“We consider this a serious matter,” a spokesperson for the municipality of The Hague told Omroep West. The municipality does not know how many people have fallen victim to this scam and will be lenient with anyone who got a parking ticket after using a fake QR code to pay for their parking.
The spokesperson stressed that the municipality of The Hague does not use QR codes to pay for parking. They urged anyone who fell victim to this scam to report it to the police.
The Hague has alerted its municipal enforcement officers about the fake QR codes, and they are actively checking parking meters to remove them.
