Major warning issued over car park QR code scams amid rise in ‘quishing’
The fraud of action uses fraudulent QR codes in parking lots to steal the personal and financial information of the criminals.
Between April 2024 and April 2025, the British National Fag and Cyber Crimes Center has disappeared about £ 3.5 million due to QR code fraud with more than 780 ‘Quing’ report.
‘Quinging’, also known as the QR code identity hunting, is a kind of cyber attack in which QR codes are used to visit fraudulent websites or deceive them to download malware.
Fraudulent QR codes are most commonly used in parking lots, and criminals use stickers to tamper with existing scanning codes in parking machines.
Fraud is also used on online shopping platforms that sellers receive a QR code via E -Post to verify the accounts or to pay for products sold.
Some identity hunting attacks are targeting people with QR codes designed to steal personal and financial details by mimicking HMRC or other British government programs.
People are asked to remain awake to see if they are malicious or tampered with before scanning in online or public spaces and check their QR codes twice.
Action Fraud Director Claire Webb said: “QR codes are becoming increasingly widespread in daily life, whether they are getting an e -mail to pay an online account for a parking lot, reporting, reporting, cyber criminals use the public as a way to deceive the public from personal and financial information.
“We urge people to stop and control QR codes before scanning.
Although it is generally safe to scan the QR codes used in pubs and restaurants, those in open spaces such as train stations or parking lots can pose a greater risk.
Action fraud suggests that the codes such as a label placed on a legitimate QR code may be tampered with.
If you are not sure, it is best not to scan the QR code at all and to find the official website or application of the organization you are trying to pay instead.
If you get an E -mail with QR code and you are required to scan it, you should be careful due to the increase in such ‘quing’ attacks.
Another measure to be taken is to use the QR browser that comes with your phone instead of using an application downloaded from an App Store, since it is safer.
