Phishing schemes already litter the internet, and now they are coming for parking meters. The San Antonio police were the first to warn about the scam. People are putting their own codes on the machines, which will lead people to scammy pay-portals when scanned.
The police department said in a separate message that anyone who suffered a credit card breach after making a parking meter payment should immediately report it to their bank.
It is a clever way to skim a few bucks off car owners, but it is not the only city being hit here. Austin and Houston began inspecting their meters after San Antonio warned them. A local Fox News affiliate in the Austin area reported last week that there were fake codes on the parking meters. A local Houston news network reported that it caught five parking meters with the same fraudulent codes.
The Houston report claims that car-owners who scanned the codes would be taken to a site calledpassportlab.xyz that would lead them to a system called Quick Pay parking. The bad actor running the site could make off with the cash after the payment is made.
If you are driving in these cities, you should probably not use a QR to pay for parking. The city of Houston has never used a QR code for payment before, and recently issued a press release reminding residents that it is always accepted. The city of Austin uses the same three payment methods, and the city's release said that the wild may have been created with malicious intent.
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